went to dine with her
nephew, just as she did when he went to a dinner party up at the house,
and for us as _belongs_ to the house--well, we don't relish it. I
hope, sir," Willets went on in quite a different tone, "that you'll
make it convenient to go up and see after Miss Mary?"

The hawk's eyes were fixed unwinkingly on Reggie's face, so lean and
sallow and set; the moonlight accentuated the rather hollow cheeks.
and cast black shadows round his eyes, which looked green and sinister.

Suddenly he smiled, and when Reggie smiled, his whole face altered.

"Out with it, Willets," he said, "what maggot have you got in your head
now? You're worried about something; you may as well tell me. I'm
safe as a church."

"I'd like to know, sir," Willets remarked in a detached impersonal
tone, "what's your opinion of mixed marriages?"

"_What_ sort of marriages?"

"Well marriages where one of the parties has had a different bringing
up to the other. Now suppose, sir--do you know Miss Shipway--over to
Marlehouse; her father's got that big shop top of the market-place full
of bonnets and mantles and such--good-looking girl she is----"

"I'm afraid I don't know the lady, Willets; why?"

"Well, sir, it's this way. She'll have a tidy bit of money when old
Shipway dies; her mother was cook at the Fleece, but they've got on.
Well now, sir, suppose you was to go after Miss Shipway-----"

Reggie's eyes twinkled. "It might be a most sensible proceeding on my
part--a poor devil like me--if as you say she's a nice girl and will
have a lot of money. Will you give me an introduction?"

"I'm not jokin', sir, nor taking the liberty to propose anything of the
sort; it's only----"

"A hypothetical case?"

"That's it, sir. I mean suppose a gentleman like yourself was to marry
a girl like her, do you think you'd be happy?"

"Surely it would all depend on whether they liked each other--and liked
the same things----"

"Ah, sir, that's it. _Would_ you like the same things, do you suppose?"

"Well, Willets, I don't see that you've any cause to worry.
Unfortunately I don't know the young lady, so I can't see how I'm to
get any forrader."

"Suppose, sir, a young _lady_, like what the Mistress was, should marry
a man in quite a different rank from herself, do you think _they'd_ be
happy?"

"It depends," said Reggie, "what sort of a chap he was. People rise,
you know."

"Well, suppose he did, would they happy?"

"I couldn't