g enough to give trouble...."

"You are not afraid?"

"Not particularly," he said with a slow smile. "It's not a job I hanker
after, but I've promised you to try, and I will try. You'll tell me, I
dare say, what you think the best way of setting about it?"

"Of course. You are far too stupid to think for yourself. And now,
good-by!"

"I say, you're not going! And I had such a lot to talk about ... that
wedding, for instance...."

"What wedding?" She paused, chin in air.

"Come! that's a good 'un. Ours."

"Pstt! the assurance of these male creatures!--As if I would marry a man
who kisses me by force! No, Mr. Brown, do not count on that. Do what you
have promised first, and then I will think about it. If I choose,
well ... If I do not choose, well ... I promise nothing."

"That's a poor sort of bargain."

"It is no bargain: I do not bargain. I give an order. Good-by. Oh, I
will write to you----"

"Thank you--thank you----" he began.

"To tell you what to do. I shall not be far, but you must not attempt to
see me without my leave."

She turned on her heel and marched down the road. The odd-job man
whistled in amused dismay. "They're all alike," he muttered as he turned
to his work again and met the vicar's wife. She was coming from the
house and wore a severe expression.

"Did I hear you talking, Brown?"

"I can't say, ma'am," he answered stolidly. She frowned.

"Be good enough not to equivocate," she commanded. "_Were_ you talking?"

"I often talk aloud to myself," said Henry mildly. He was an honest man
and did not take kindly to lies, even of the whitest. Mrs. Peters
frowned again.

"Indeed!" she said icily. "Do you mean to say you were not talking to a
young woman through the hedge?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Henry, "I was. I suppose I'm allowed to rest for a
minute now and then."

"Rest is a very different thing from philandering. That I can not allow.
It looks very bad from the road to see the vicarage servants gossiping
or worse through the hedge. Remember, Brown, it must not happen again. I
can not understand one of our village girls----"

She paused interrogatively, but Henry was not so silly as to fall into
the trap. He began to oil the machine, and even Mrs. Peters did not
like to ask pointblank who his sweetheart was. Instead, she finished
with a snap, "--making herself so cheap."

She went back to the house again. Henry straightened up and glared after
her. "They're all alike!" he said ag