he lure of
the seven per cent. in front of Louis. At any rate, he assuredly did
not care, personally, whether Louis accepted the debentures or not.

"However," the councillor went on, "he's got to know his own business
best. And I don't know as it's any affair o' mine. But I was just
thinking of you. When the husband has a good investment, th' wife
generally comes in for something.... And what's more, it 'ud ha'
stopped him from doing anything silly with his brass! _You_
know."

"Yes," she murmured.

"I'm talking to ye because I've taken a fancy to ye," said the
councillor. "I knew what you were the first time I set eyes on ye. Oh,
I don't mind telling ye now--what harm is there in it? I'd a sort of a
fancy as one day you and John's Ernest might ha' hit it off. I had it
in my mind like."

A crude compliment, possibly in bad taste, possibly offensive; but
Rachel was singularly moved by the revelation thus made. Before she
could find a reply John's Ernest came into the shop, followed by an
aproned assistant.

III

Then she was sitting by John's Ernest's side in the big motor-car,
with her possessions at her feet. The enthronement had happened in a
few moments. John's Ernest was going to Hanbridge.

"Ye can run Mrs. Fores up home on yer way," Thomas Batchgrew had
suggested.

"But Bycars Lane is miles out of your way!" Rachel had cried.

Both men had smiled. "Won't make a couple of minutes' difference in
the car," John's Ernest had modestly murmured.

She had been afraid to get into the automobile--afraid with a sort of
stage-fright; afraid, as she might have been had she been called
upon to sing at a concert in the Town Hall. She had imagined that all
Bursley was gazing at her as she climbed into the car. Over the face
of England automobiles are far more common than cuckoos, and yet for
the majority, even of the proud and solvent middle class, they still
remain as unattainable, as glitteringly wondrous, as a title. Rachel
had never been in an automobile before; she had never hoped to be
in an automobile. A few days earlier, and she had been regarding a
bicycle as rather romantic! Louis had once mentioned a motor-cycle
and side-carriage for herself, but she had rebuffed the idea with a
shudder.

The whole town slid away behind her. The car was out of the
market-place and crossing the top of Duck Bank, the scene of Louis'
accident, before she had settled her skirts. She understood why the
men had smiled