med Jerrem. "I haven't much sense in your eyes, I
know, Eve, but you might give me credit o' knowing who's to be trusted
and who isn't."

"What's that about trustin'?" said Joan, who now made her appearance.
"I tell 'ee what 'tis, Mr. Jerrem, you'm not to be trusted anyhows.
Why, what could 'ee ha' bin thinkin' of to go sendin' that letter you
did, after Adam had spoke to 'ee all? There'd be a purty set-out of it,
you knaw, Jerrem, if the thing was to get winded about. I, for wan,
shouldn't thank 'ee, I can tell 'ee, for gettin' my name mixed up with
it, and me made nothin' better than a cat's-paw of."

"Who's goin' to wind it about?" said Jerrem, throwing his arm round her
and drawing her coaxingly toward him. "You ain't, and I ain't, and I'll
answer for it Eve ain't; and so long as we three keep our tongues
atween our teeth, who'll be the wiser--eh?"

"Awh, that's all very fine," returned Joan, far from mollified, "but
there's a somebody hasn't a-kept their tongues silent; and who it can
be beats me to tell. Did Jonathan knaw for certain 'bout the landin'?
or was it only guess-work with un?"

"I ain't sure; but Jonathan's safe enough," said Jerrem, "and so's the
rest too. 'Twarn't through no blabbin', take my word for that: 'twas a
reg'lar right-down set scheme from beginnin' to end, and that's why I
should ha' liked to ha' give 'em a payin'-out that they wouldn't ha'
forgot in a hurry. I'd ha' scored their reckonin' for 'em, I can tell
*'eel"

"Awh! iss, I dare say," said Joan with scornful contempt: "you allays
think you knaws better than they you'm bound to listen to.
Howsomedever, when all's said and done, I shall finish with the same I
began with--that you'd no right to send that letter."

"Well, you've told me that afore," said Jerrem sullenly.

"Iss, and now I tells 'ee behind," retorted Joan, "and to front and to
back, and round all the sides--so there!"

"Oh, all right!" said Jerrem: "have your talk out: it don't matter to
me;" and he threw himself down on the settle with apparent unconcern,
taking from his breast-pocket a letter which he carefully
unfolded.--"Did you know that I'd got a letter gived me to Guernsey,
Eve," he said--"one they'd ha' kept waitin' there for months for me?"

Eve looked up, and, to her vexation, saw Jerrem reading the letter
which on her first arrival she had written: the back of it was turned
toward her, so as to ostentatiously display the two splotches of red
sealing-wa