nd that the sombre magnificence of her dress and her gloves
and parasol did not prevent her from opening her rather large mouth and
showing her teeth.

"It was just like mother to tell me fibs about her age," said Helen,
generously (it is always interesting to observe the transformation of a
lie into a fib). "And I shall write and tell her she's a horrid mean
thing. I shall write to her this very night."

"So Susan's gone and married again!" James murmured, reflectively.

Helen now definitely turned the whole of her mortal part towards James,
so that she fronted him, and her feet were near his. He also turned, in
response to this diplomatic advance, and leant his right elbow on the
back of the seat, and his chin on his right palm. He put his left leg
over his right leg, and thus his left foot swayed like a bird on a twig
within an inch of Helen's flounce. The parasol covered the faces of the
just and the unjust impartially.

"I suppose you don't know a farmer named Bratt that used to have a farm
near Sneyd?" said Helen.

"I can't say as I do," said James.

"Well, that's the man!" said Helen. "He used to come to Longshaw
cattle-market with sheep and things."

"Sheep and things!" echoed James. "What things?"

"Oh! I don't know," said Helen, sharply. "Sheep and things."

"And what did your mother take to Longshaw cattle-market?" James
inquired. "I understood as she let lodgings."

"Not since I've been a teacher," said Helen, rather more sharply.
"Mother didn't take anything to the cattle-market. But you know our
house was just close to the cattle-market."

"No, I didn't," said James, stoutly. "I thought as it was in
Aynsley-street."

"Oh! that's years ago!" said Helen, shocked by his ignorance. "We've
lived in Sneyd-road for years--years."

"I'll not deny it," said James.

"The great fault of our house," Helen proceeded, "was that mother
daren't stir out of it on cattle-market days."

"Why not?"

"Cows!" said Helen. "Mother simply can't look at a cow, and they were
passing all the time."

"She should ha' been thankful as it wasn't bulls," James put in.

"But I mean bulls too!" exclaimed Helen. "In fact, it was a bull that
led to it."

"What! Th' farmer saved her from a mad bull, and she fell in love with
him? He's younger than her, I lay!"

"How did you know that?" Helen questioned. "Besides, he isn't. They're
just the same age."

"Forty-four?" Perceiving delicious danger in the virgin's face, J