se.

She moved gracefully. She was slender, her every motion merited
to be sketched. Iver's artistic sense was excited to admiration.
What a girl she was! What a model! Oh, that he had her as his own!

Mehetabel knew that she was watched, and it disconcerted her. She
was constrained to exercise great self-control; not to let slip
what she carried, not to forget what tasks had to be discharged.

In her heart she glowed with pride at the thought that Iver loved
her--that he, the prince, the idol of her childhood, should have
retained a warm place in his heart for her. And yet, the thought,
though sweet, was bitter as well, fraught with foreshadowings of
danger.

Mrs. Verstage also watched Mehetabel, and her son likewise, with
anxious eyes.

The old man left the house to attend to his cattle; and one of
the gentlemen came to the kitchen-door to invite Iver, whose
acquaintance he had made during the day, to join him and his
companions over a bowl of punch.

The young man was unable to refuse, but left with reluctance
manifest enough to his mother and Mehetabel.

Then, when the hostess was alone with the girl, she drew her to
her side, and said, "There is now nothing to occupy you. Sit by me
and tell me about yourself and how you get on with Bideabout. You
have no notion how pleased I am to have you here again."

Mehetabel kissed the old woman, and a tear from her eye fell on
the withering cheek of the landlady.

"I dare be bound you find it lonely in the new home," said Mrs.
Verstage. "Here, in an inn, there is plenty of life; but in the
farm you are out of the world. How does the Broom-Squire treat
you?"

She awaited an answer with anxiety, which she was unable to
disguise.

After a pause Mehetabel replied, with heightened color, "Jonas is
not unkind."

"You can't expect love-making every day," said the hostess. "It's
the way of men to promise the sun, moon, and planets, till you are
theirs, and after that, then poor women must be content to be
given a spark off a fallen star. There was Jamaica Cheel runn'd
away with his Betsy because he thought the law wouldn't let him
have her; she was the wife of another, you know. Then he found
she never had been proper married to the other chap, and when he
discovered he was fast tied to Betsy he'd a run away from her
only the law wouldn't let him. Jonas ain't beautiful and young,
that I allow."

"I knew what he was when I married him," answered Mehetabel. "I
cann