goose; but it's a fact.
You'll find it out another day!"

"I like a man to have a strong will," Juliet said with the air of a
meek, gentle, little fiancee, and the Squire laughed loudly, and made a
characteristic change of front.

"Glad to hear it! Glad you don't go in for any of this fashionable
nonsense about independence and equality. You obey your husband, my
dear, and stay quietly in your home, and content yourself with your
house duties, as your mother did before you. What has _she_ got to say
about this precious engagement?"

"Mother thinks of me. She is glad of anything that makes me happy,"
Juliet said, and flattered herself that she had rounded the corner
rather neatly. Antony looked at her quickly, and as quickly looked
away. Little Mrs Maplestone gave a soft murmur of approval.

"She must be, dear! I am sure she must be and I'm sure she'll like
Antony when she knows him better. I hope we shall soon meet your
parents. It was through your brother that you met, was it not? An old
school friend. At Henley?"

"Yes, Henley. Yes, Phil! Please don't ask me about it! The whole
thing was such a rush. Only three days! It seems like a dream. I--I
forget everything but the one great fact!" cried Juliet, taking refuge
in truth, and thereby winning smiles of approval from her old-fashioned
hearers, who considered such confusion suitable and becoming. They
beamed upon her, and Juliet began to feel the dawnings of pride in her
own diplomacy. She was getting on well; surprisingly well! She allowed
herself to believe that Alice White could have done no better.

"Three days, eh?" repeated the Squire complacently. "Bowled him over in
three days, did you, after being bullet-proof all these years! How in
the world did you manage to do it?"

"I can't think!" declared Juliet, truthfully again, but she smiled as
she spoke, and showed a dimple, and dropped her eyelids, so that the
dark lashes rested on the pink of her cheeks, whereat the young man
looked more embarrassed than ever, and the old one laughed till he
choked, and offered her more cake, and called her "my dear" twice over
in a single sentence, and delivered himself of the opinion that Antony
was a lucky dog.

"Doesn't deserve it, after all his slackness and procrastination! Let's
hope he'll appreciate his good luck. But what's this nonsense about
waiting two years? What's this nonsense about not going back with him
at once?"

Juliet loo