sit
yourself down there, and cross-examine your mistress in that way! Get
to bed, will you? It's near ten o'clock."

"I hope I haven't said anything amiss, ma'am;" and Jeannette rose
from her seat.

"It's my fault for encouraging you," said Mrs Greenow. "Go
down-stairs and finish your work, do; and then take yourself off to
bed. Next week we shall have to be packing up, and there'll be all my
things to see to before that." So Jeannette got up and departed, and
after some few further thoughts about Captain Bellfield, Mrs Greenow
herself went to her bedroom.

Mr Cheesacre, when he drove back to Oileymead alone from Norwich,
after dining with Mrs Greenow, had kept himself hot, and almost
comfortable, with passion against Bellfield; and his heat, if not
his comfort, had been sustained by his seeing the Captain, with his
portmanteau, escaping just as he reached his own homestead. But early
on the following morning his mind reverted to Mrs Greenow, and he
remembered, with anything but satisfaction, some of the hard things
which she had said to him. He had made mistakes in his manner of
wooing. He was quite aware of that now, and was determined that they
should be rectified for the future. She had rebuked him for having
said nothing about his love. He would instantly mend that fault.
And she had bidden him not to be so communicative about his wealth.
Henceforth he would be dumb on that subject. Nevertheless, he could
not but think that the knowledge of his circumstances which the lady
already possessed, must be of service to him. "She can't really
like a poor beggarly wretch who hasn't got a shilling," he said to
himself. He was very far from feeling that the battle was already
lost. Her last word to him had been an assurance of her friendship;
and then why should she have been at so much trouble to tell him the
way in which he ought to address her if she were herself indifferent
as to his addresses? He was, no doubt, becoming tired of his
courtship, and heartily wished that the work were over; but he was
not minded to give it up. He therefore prepared himself for another
attack, and took himself into Norwich without seeking counsel from
any one. He could not trust himself to think that she could really
wish to refuse him after all the encouragement she had given him. On
this occasion he put on no pink shirt or shiny boots, being deterred
from doing so by a remembrance of Captain Bellfield's ridicule;
but, nevertheless, h