" said Cai to 'Bias as they
went up through the old rose-garden, where the June-flowering H.P.'s ran
riot in masses of colour from palest pink to deepest crimson.

"Ay," assented 'Bias, "we'll have to get used to folks smilin', these
next few days. . . . Between ourselves, I never fancied that woman,
though I couldn' give you any particular reason for it."

"Sly," suggested Cai.

"'Tis more than that. Slyness, you may say, belongs to the whole sex,
and I've known men say as they found it agreeable, in moderation."

"I never noticed that in her mistress, to do her justice."

'Bias halted. "Look here. . . . You're _sure_ you ain't weakenin'?"

"Sure."

"Because, as I told 'ee last night--and I'll say it again, here, at the
last moment--she's yours, and welcome, if so be--"

"--'If so be as I didn' speak my true mind last night, when I said the
same to you '--is that what you mean? Here, let's on and get it over!"
said Cai, mopping his brow anew.

"'Tis a delicate business to broach, as you mentioned just now," said
'Bias dallying. "We'll have to be very careful how we put it."

"Very. As I told 'ee before, if you like to take it over--"

"Not at all. You're spokesman--only we don't want to put it so's she
can round on us with 'nobody axed you.' And you gave me a turn, just
then, by sayin' as you never noticed she was sly; because as I reckon,
that's the very point we've come to make."

"As how?"

'Bias stared at him in some perturbation. "Why, didn't she put that
trick on us over the investment? And ain't we here to give her back her
money? And wasn't it agreed as we'd open on her reproachful-like? an'
then, one thing leadin' to another--"

"Ay, to be sure--I got all that in my mind really." Cai wiped the back
of his neck and pocketed his handkerchief with an air of decision--or of
desperation. "What you don't seem to know--though with any experience
o' speakin' you'd understand well enough--is that close upon the last
moment all your thoughts fly, and specially if folks _will_ keep
chatterin': but when you stand up and open your mouth--provided as
nobody interrupts you . . ."

"I declare! If it isn't Captain Hocken--_and_ Captain Hunken with him!"

At the creaking of the small gate, as Cai opened it, Mrs Bosenna had
looked up and espied them. She dropped the bundle of raffia, with the
help of which she had been staking such of her young shoots as were
overlong or weighted down by their he