I just had to 'journ co't. I've been telling Lady Kate that she
mustn't be in a hurry to get married till she finds somebody that will
make her as happy as you and me." Here the judge slipped his arm around
Peggy's capacious waist and the two crossed the pasture as the nearest
way to the house.

Kate kept on her way alone.

Her only reply to the garrulous judge had been one of her rippling
laughs, but it was the laughter of bubbles with the sediment lying deep
in the bottom of the glass.

CHAPTER XXI

But all outings must come to an end. And so when the marsh grass on
the lowlands lay in serried waves of dappled satin, and the corn on the
uplands was waist high and the roses a mob of beauty, Kate threw her
arms around Peggy and kissed her over and over again, her whole heart
flowing through her lips; and then the judge got his good-by on his
wrinkled cheek, and the children on any clean spot which she found on
their molasses-covered faces; and then the cavalcade took up its line of
march for the boat-landing, Willits going as far as the wharf, where he
and Kate had a long talk in low tones, in which he seemed to be doing
all the talking and she all the listening--"But nuthin' mo'n jes' a
han'shake" (so Todd told St. George), "he lookin' like he wanter eat
her up an' she kinder sayin' dat de cake ain't brown 'nough yit fur
tastin'--but one thing I know fo' sho'--an' dat is she didn't let 'im
kiss 'er. I wuz leadin' his horse pas' whar dey wuz standin', an'
de sorrel varmint got cuttin' up an' I kep' him prancin' till Mister
Willits couldn't stay wid her no longer. Drat dat red-haided--"

"Stop, Todd--be careful--you mustn't speak that way of Mr. Willits."

"Well, Marse George, I won't--but I ain't neber like him f'om de fust.
He ain't quality an' he neber kin be. How Miss Kate don' stan' him is
mo'n I kin tell."

Kate drove up to her father's house in state, with Ben as special envoy
to see that she and her belongings were properly cared for. St. George
with Todd and the four dogs--six in all--arrived, despite Kate's
protestations, on foot.

Pawson met him at the door. He had given up his boarding-house and had
transferred his traps and parcels to the floor above--into Harry's
old room, really--in order that the additional rent--(he had now taken
entire charge of Temple's finances)--might help in the payment of the
interest on the mortgage. He had thought this all out while St. George
was at Wesley