ft felt
with no trimming, save a rather ragged cord, and she wore it turned down
all round. It had once been brown, but was now a mixture of soft faded
tints like certain lichens growing on a roof. Her covert coat, rather
too big, and quite nondescript in colour, washed by the rains of many
winters, revealed in flowing lines the dim grace of the broad, yet
slender shoulders beneath.

Her exceedingly short skirt was almost as weather-beaten as the coat, but
it swung evenly with every step and there was no sagging at the back.

Last of all, his eyes dropped to her boots: wide welted, heavy brown
boots; regular country boots; but here again was the charm of graceful
line, and he knew instinctively that the feet they encased were slender
and shapely and unspoiled.

He raised his eyes again to the serenely unconscious profile presented to
his view: a very finished profile with nothing smudgy or uncertain about
it. The little nose was high-bridged and decided, the red lips full and
shut closely together, the upper short and deeply cleft in the centre.

He was just thinking that, in spite of his muddy hat, he would rather
like her to look at him again, when she turned her large gaze upon him
with the question:

"Were you preaching just before you fell down?"

He flushed hotly. "Certainly not--did it sound like . . . that?"

"Well, I wasn't sure. I thought if you were a curate trying a sermon
you'd have said 'brethren,' but 'fellow men' would do, you know; and then
I heard something about the 'house of the Lord,' and I was sure you must
be a sucking parson; but when I came up I wasn't so sure. What were you
saying over, if it wasn't a sermon?"

"It was stupid of me . . . but I do a good deal of public speaking, and I
never dreamt anyone was within miles . . ."

"Oh, a speech, was it? Where are you going to speak it?"

"I shall probably address a meeting in Marlehouse to-morrow night."

"Why?"

"Because I've been asked to do so."

"Will it be in the paper on Saturday?"

"Probably."

"How grand; do tell me your name, then I can look for your speech. I'd
love to read it and see if you begin with the bit I heard about fellow
men and the house of the Lord."

"The House of Lords," he corrected.

"Oh," said the girl. "Them! It's them you're against. I was afraid you
objected to churches."

"I don't care much for churches, either," he observed, gloomily. "Do
you?"

"I've really never thought about i