ighbour.

"She have _so_," agreed Mrs Wishing mildly; "and I wonder, that I do,
to see her carrying that heavy basket on foot--she as used to come in
her spring cart."

Mrs Pinhorn pressed her lips together before answering, then she said
with meaning: "They're short of hands just now at Orchards Farm, and
maybe short of horses too."

"You don't say so!" said Mrs Wishing, drawing nearer.

"My Ben works there, as you know, and he says money's scarce there, very
scarce indeed. One of the men got turned off only t'other day."

"Lor', now, to think of that!" exclaimed Mrs Wishing in an awed manner.
"An' her in that bonnet an' all them artificials!"

"There's a deal," continued Mrs Pinhorn, "in what Mrs White says about
them two Greenways gals with their fine-lady ways. It 'ud a been better
to bring 'em up handy in the house so as to help their mother. As it
is, they're too finnicking to be a bit of use. You wouldn't see either
of _them_ with a basket on their arm, they'd think it lowering
themselves. And I dare say the youngest 'll grow up just like 'em."

"There's a deal in what Mrs Greenways's just been saying too," remarked
the woman called Mrs Wishing in a hesitating voice, "for Mrs James
White _is_ a very strict woman and holds herself high, and `Lilac' is a
fanciful kind of a name; but _I_ dunno." She broke off as if feeling
incapable of dealing with the question.

"I can't wonder myself," resumed Mrs Pinhorn, "at Mrs Greenways being
a bit touchy. You heard, I s'pose, what Mrs White up and said to her
once? You didn't? Well, she said, `You can't make a silk purse out of
a sow's ear, and you'll never make them girls ladies, try all you will,'
says she. `Useless things you'll make 'em, fit for neither one station
or t'other.'"

"That there's plain speaking!" said Mrs Wishing admiringly.

Mr Dimbleby had not uttered a word during this conversation, and was to
all appearance entirely occupied in weighing out, tying up parcels, and
receiving orders. In reality, however, he had not lost a word of it,
and had been getting ready to speak for some time past. Neither of the
women, who were well acquainted with him, was at all surprised when he
suddenly remarked: "It were Mrs Leigh herself as had to do with the
name of Mrs James White's baby."

"Re'lly, now?" said Mrs Wishing doubtfully.

"An' it were Mrs Leigh herself as I heard it from," continued Dimbleby
ponderously, without noticing the interruptio