say: if I'd known this was all 'e 'ad to h'offer you, I'd
'a' said, stop w'ere you are, my lamb, in a comfortable, 'appy 'ome."

"Oh, I AM happy, mother dear, indeed I am!" cried Polly. "I've never
regretted being married--never once!"

"There, there, now!"

"And it's only ... I mean ... this is the best we can afford in the
meantime, and if I am satisfied ..." floundered Polly, dismayed to hear
her words construed into blame of her husband. "It's only that it
upsets Richard if people speak slightingly of our house, and that
upsets me--and I musn't be worried just now, you know," she added with
a somewhat shaky smile.

"Not a word will I say, ducky, make yer pore little mind easy about
that. Though such a poky little 'en-coop of a place I never was
in!"--and, while tying her cap-strings, Mrs. Beamish swept the little
bedroom and its sloping roof with a withering glance. "I was 'orrified,
girls, simply 'ORRIFIED!" she related the incident to her daughters.
"An' I up an' told 'er so--just like me, you know. Not room enough to
swing a cat in, and 'im sittin' at the 'ead of the table as 'igh an'
mighty as a dook! You can thank yer stars, you two, 'e didn't take one
o' you instead o' Polly." But this was chiefly by way of a
consolation-prize for Tilly and Jinny.

"An' now, my dear, tell me EVERYTHING." With these words, Mrs. Beamish
spread her skirts and settled down to a cosy chat on the subject of
Polly's hopes.

But like the majority of her sex she was an adept at dividing her
attention; and while making delicate inquiries of the young wife, she
was also travelling her shrewd eye round the little bedchamber, spying
out and appraising: not one of poor Polly's makeshifts escaped her. The
result of her inspection was to cause her to feel justly indignant with
Mahony. The idea! Him to rob them of Polly just to dump her down in a
place like this! She would never be able to resist telling him what she
thought of him.

Here, however, she reckoned without Polly. Polly was sharp enough to
doubt "mother's" ability to hold her tongue; and saw to it that Richard
and she were not left alone together. And of an evening when talk
languished, she would beg her husband to read to them from the BALLARAT
STAR, until, as often as not, Mrs. Beamish fell asleep. Frequently,
too, she persuaded him to go out and take a hand in a newlyformed whist
club, or discuss politics with a neighbour.

Mahony went willingly enough; his home was le