u've quite made up your mind not to have him."

"Quite, aunt."

"Your grandfather's will does make a difference, you know. But, as I
was saying, I do like a little romance about them,--just a sniff, as
I call it, of the rocks and valleys. One knows that it doesn't mean
much; but it's like artificial flowers,--it gives a little colour,
and takes off the dowdiness. Of course, bread-and-cheese is the
real thing. The rocks and valleys are no good at all, if you
haven't got that, But enough is as good as a feast. Thanks to dear
Greenow,"--here the handkerchief was again used--"Thanks to dear
Greenow, I shall never want. Of course I shan't let any of the money
go into his hands,--the Captain's, I mean. I know a trick worth two
of that, my dear. But, lord love you! I've enough for him and me.
What's the good of a woman's wanting to keep it all to herself?"

"And you think you'll really take him, aunt, and pay his
washerwoman's bills for him? You remember what you told me when I
first saw him?"

"Oh, yes; I remember. And if he can't pay his own washerwoman, isn't
that so much more of a reason that I should do it for him? Well; yes;
I think I will take him. That is, if he lets me take him just as I
choose. Beggars mustn't be choosers, my dear."

In this way the aunt and niece became very confidential, and Mrs
Greenow whispered into Kate's ears her belief that Captain Bellfield
might possibly make his way across the country to Westmoreland.
"There would be no harm in offering him a bed, would there?" Mrs
Greenow asked. "You see the inn at Shap is a long way off for morning
calls." Kate could not take upon herself to say that there would be
any harm, but she did not like the idea of having Captain Bellfield
as a visitor. "After all, perhaps he mayn't come," said the widow. "I
don't see where he is to raise the money for such a journey, now that
he has quarrelled with Mr Cheesacre."

"If Captain Bellfield must come to Vavasor Hall, at any rate let him
not come till Alice's visit had been completed." That was Kate's
present wish, and so much she ventured to confide to her aunt. But
there seemed to be no way of stopping him. "I don't in the least know
where he is, my dear, and as for writing to him, I never did such a
thing in my life, and I shouldn't know how to begin." Mrs Greenow
declared that she had not positively invited the Captain; but on this
point Kate hardly gave full credit to her aunt's statement.

Alice arrived