and much painful
pleasure therefrom. In short, he dwelt upon it so exclusively and so
persistently that it went near to breaking his heart; but that was not
until his heart was older, and therefore more capable of being broken
past mending again.

Miss Farringdon and the people of Sedgehill were alike delighted to have
Elisabeth among them once more; she was a girl with a strong
personality; and people with strong personalities have a knack of making
themselves missed when they go away.

"It's nice, and so it is, to have Miss Elisabeth back again," remarked
Mrs. Bateson to Mrs. Hankey; "and it makes it so much cheerfuller for
Miss Farringdon, too."

"Maybe it'll only make it the harder for Miss Farringdon when the time
comes for Miss Elisabeth to be removed by death or by marriage; and
which'll be the best for her--poor young lady!--the Lord must decide,
for I'm sure I couldn't pass an opinion, only having tried one, and that
nothing to boast of."

"I wonder if Miss Farringdon will leave her her fortune," said Mrs.
Bateson, who, in common with the rest of her class, was consumed with an
absorbing curiosity as to all testamentary dispositions.

"She may, and she may not; there's no prophesying about wills. I'm
pleased to say I can generally foretell when folks is going to die,
having done a good bit of sick-nursing in my time afore I married
Hankey; but as to foretelling how they're going to leave their money, I
can no more do it than the babe unborn; nor nobody can, as ever I heard
tell on."

"That's so, Mrs. Hankey. Wills seem to me to have been invented by the
devil for the special upsetting of the corpse's memory. Why, some of the
peaceablest folks as I've ever known--folks as wouldn't have scared a
lady-cow in their lifetime--have left wills as have sent all their
relations to the right-about, ready to bite one another's noses off.
Bateson often says to me, 'Kezia,' he says, 'call no man honest till his
will's read.' And I'll be bound he's in the right. Still, it would be
hard to see Miss Elisabeth begging her bread after the way she's been
brought up, and Miss Farringdon would never have the conscience to let
her do it."

"Folks leave their consciences behind with their bodies," said Mrs.
Hankey; "and I've lived long enough to be surprised at nothing where
wills are concerned."

"That is quite true," replied Mrs. Bateson. "Now take Miss Anne, for
instance: she seemed so set on Miss Elisabeth that you'd