as Lise's account of this affair
which apparently she regarded as compensation for many days of
drudgery-that even Hannah laughed, though deploring a choice of language
symbolic of a world she feared and detested.

"If I talked like you," said Lise, "they wouldn't understand me."

Janet, too, was momentarily amused, drawn out of that reverie in which
she had dwelt all day, ever since Ditmar had left for Boston. Now she
began to wonder what would happen if she were suddenly to announce "I'm
going to marry Mr. Ditmar." After the first shock of amazement, she could
imagine her father's complete and complacent acceptance of the news as a
vindication of an inherent quality in the Bumpus blood. He would begin to
talk about the family. For, despite what might have been deemed a
somewhat disillusionizing experience, in the depths of his being he still
believed in the Providence who had presided over the perilous voyage of
the Mayflower and the birth of Peregrine White, whose omniscient mind was
peculiarly concerned with the family trees of Puritans. And what could be
a more striking proof of the existence of this Providence, or a more
fitting acknowledgment on his part of the Bumpus virtues, than that Janet
should become the wife of the agent of the Chippering Mills? Janet
smiled. She was amused, too, by the thought that Lise's envy would be
modified by the prospect of a heightened social status; since Lise, it
will be remembered, had her Providence likewise. Hannah's god was not a
Providence, but one deeply skilled in persecution, in ingenious methods
of torture; one who would not hesitate to dangle baubles before the eyes
of his children--only to snatch them away again. Hannah's pessimism would
persist as far as the altar, and beyond!

On the whole, such was Janet's notion of the Deity, though deep within
her there may have existed a hope that he might be outwitted; that, by
dint of energy and brains, the fair things of life might be obtained
despite a malicious opposition. And she loved Ditmar. This must be love
she felt, this impatience to see him again, this desire to be with him,
this agitation possessing her so utterly that all day long she had dwelt
in an unwonted state like a somnambulism: it must be love, though not
resembling in the least the generally accepted, virginal ideal. She saw
him as he was, crude, powerful, relentless in his desire; his very faults
appealed. His passion had overcome his prudence, he had no