omantic country not mentioned in geographies. When she looked _at_
him--well, the effect on him astonished him; but it enchanted him. He
was discovering for the first time the soul of a girl. If he was a
little taken aback he is to be excused. Younger men than he have been
taken aback by that discovery. But James Ollerenshaw did not behave as a
younger man would have behaved. He was more like some one who, having
heard tell of the rose for sixty years, and having paid no attention to
rumour, suddenly sees a rose in early bloom. At his age one knows how to
treat a flower; one knows what flowers are for.

It was no doubt this knowledge of what flowers are for that almost led
to the spilling of milk at the very moment when milk-spilling seemed in
a high degree improbable.

The conversation had left Susan and her caprices, and had reached Helen
and her solid wisdom.

"But you haven't told me what you're doing i' Bosley," said the old man.

"I've told you I'm living here," said Helen. "I've now been living here
for one week and one day. I'm teaching at the Park Road Board School. I
got transferred from Longshaw. I never liked Longshaw, and I always
like a change."

"Yes," said Ollerenshaw, judiciously, "of the two I reckon as Bosley is
the frying-pan. So you're teaching up yonder?" He jerked his elbow in
the direction of the spacious and imposing terra-cotta Board School,
whose front looked on the eastern gates of the park. "What dost teach?"

"Oh, everything," Helen replied.

"You must be very useful to 'em," said James. "What do they pay you for
teaching everything?"

"Seventy-two pounds," said Helen.

"A month? It 'ud be cheap at a hundred, lass; unless there's a whole
crowd on ye as can teach everything. Can you sew?"

"Sew!" she exclaimed. "I've given lessons in sewing for years. _And_
cookery. _And_ mathematics. I used to give evening lessons in
mathematics at Longshaw secondary school."

Great-stepuncle James gazed at her. It was useless for him to try to
pretend to himself that he was not, secretly, struck all of a heap by
the wonders of the living organism in front of him. He was. And this
shows, though he was a wise man and an experienced, how ignorant he was
of the world. But I do not think he was more ignorant of the world than
most wise and experienced men are. He conceived Helen Rathbone as an
extraordinary, an amazing creature. Nothing of the kind. There are
simply thousands of agreeable and good