rl broke it, and hadn't the honesty to say so, but
stuck it together wi' yaller soap, and thought I wouldn't see it.
Then one of the customers made her laugh, and she let seven
pewters fall, and they be battered outrageous. And she has been
chuckin' the heel taps to the hog, and made him as drunk as a
Christian. She'll drive me out of my seven senses."

"So you do miss me, mother?"

"My dear--no--I'm not selfish. It is all for your good. There wos
Martha Lintott was goin' to a dance, and dropped her bustle. Patty
Pickett picked it up, and thinkin' she couldn't have too much of
a good thing, clapped it on a top of her own and cut a fine figure
wi' it--wonderful. And Martha looked curious all up and down wi'out
one. But she took it reasonable, and said, 'What's one woman's loss
is another woman's gain.' O, my dear life! If Iver would but settle
with Polly Colpus I should die content."

"Is not the match agreed to yet?"

"No!" Mrs. Verstage sighed. "I've got my boy back, but not for
long. He talks of remaining here awhile to paint--subjects, he
calls 'em, but he don't rise to Polly as I should like. Polly is
a good girl. Master Colpus was at your weddin', and was very civil
to Iver. I heard him invite the boy to come over and look in on
him some evening--Sunday, for instance, and have a bite of supper
and a glass. But Iver hasn't been nigh the Colpuses yet; and when
I press him to go he shrugs his shoulders and says he has other
and better friends he must visit first."

Mrs. Verstage sighed again.

"Well, perhaps he doesn't fancy Polly," said Mehetabel.

"Why should he not fancy her? She will have five hundred pounds,
and old James Colpus's land adjoins ours. I don't understand
Iver's ways at all."

Mehetabel laughed. "Dear mother, you cannot expect that; he did
not think with his father's head when a boy. He will think only
with his own head now he is a man."

"Look here, Matabel. I'll leave Iver to you for half-an-hour. Show
him the cows. I'll make Bideabout take me to his sister. I want to
have it out with her for not coming to the wedding. I'm not the
person to let these things pass. Say a word to Iver about Polly,
there is a dear. I cannot bring them together, but you may, you
are so clever."

Meanwhile Iver and Jonas had been in conversation. The latter had
been somewhat contemptuous about the profession of an artist, and
was not a little astonished when he heard the prices realized by
pictures. Iver t