a governess; and it was hard for Mrs. Raynor to have to work at
millinering--a woman well brought up, and her husband a man who held his
head as high as any man in Thurston. And it isn't everybody that sees
everything fifteen years beforehand. Robert Dempster was the cleverest
man in Milby; and there weren't many young men fit to talk to Janet.'

'It is a thousand pities,' said Miss Pratt, choosing to ignore Mrs.
Pettifer's slight sarcasm, 'for I certainly did consider Janet Raynor the
most promising young woman of my acquaintance;--a little too much lifted
up, perhaps, by her superior education, and too much given to satire, but
able to express herself very well indeed about any book I recommended to
her perusal. There is no young woman in Milby now who can be compared
with what Janet was when she was married, either in mind or person. I
consider Miss Landor far, far below her. Indeed, I cannot say much for
the mental superiority of the young ladies in our first families. They
are superficial--very superficial.'

'She made the handsomest bride that ever came out of Milby church, too,'
said Mrs. Pettifer. 'Such a very fine figure! And it showed off her white
poplin so well. And what a pretty smile Janet always had! Poor thing, she
keeps that now for all her old friends. I never see her but she has
something pretty to say to me--living in the same street, you know, I
can't help seeing her often, though I've never been to the house since
Dempster broke out on me in one of his drunken fits. She comes to me
sometimes, poor thing, looking so strange, anybody passing her in the
street may see plain enough what's the matter; but she's always got some
little good-natured plan in her head for all that. Only last night I met
her, I saw five yards off she wasn't fit to be out; but she had a basin
in her hand, full of something she was carrying to Sally Martin, the
deformed girl that's in a consumption.'

'But she is just as bitter against Mr. Tryan as her husband is, I
understand,' said Rebecca. 'Her heart is very much set against the truth,
for I understand she bought Mr. Tryan's sermons on purpose to ridicule
them to Mrs. Crewe.

'Well, poor thing,' said Mrs. Pettifer, 'you know she stands up for
everything her husband says and does. She never will admit to anybody
that he is not a good husband.'

'That is her pride,' said Miss Pratt. 'She married him in opposition to
the advice of her best friends, and now she is not willin