be no need for a fight," returned Joseph. "Her's no higher
than sixpenn'orth o' soap after a hard day's washing."

"That's wrong reckoning, Joseph," said the earl; "wrong reckoning. The
smaller they are the more terrible they may be."

"I niver fled afore a little un," said Joseph. "I could allays face a
little un." He spoke with a retrospective tone. His lordship eyed him
askance with a twinkle of rich enjoyment, and took snuff with infinite
relish, as if he took Joseph's mental flavor with it and found it
delightful. "Mother Duke could strike a sort of a fear into a man,"
pursued Joseph.

"What did you say was the new tenant's name, Joseph?" his lordship
demanded, presently.

"Dunno," said Joseph. "Her's a little un--very straight up. Goes about
on her heels like, to mek the most of herself."

A minute's further walk brought them to a bend in the lane, and, passing
this, they paused before a cottage. The front of this cottage was
overgrown with climbing roses, just then in full bloom, and a disorderly
patch of overgrown blossom and shrub lay on each side the thread of
gravel-walk which led from the gate to the door. A little personage,
attired in a tight-fitting bodice and a girlish-looking skirt,
was busily reducing the redundant growth to order with a pair of
quick-snapping shears. It gave his lordship an odd kind of shock when
this little personage arose and turned. The face was old. There was
youth in the eyes and the delicate dark-brown arch of the eyebrows, but
the old-fashioned ringlet which hung at either cheek beneath the cottage
bonnet she wore was almost white. The cheeks were sunken from what had
once been a charming contour, the delicate aquiline nose was pinched
ever so little, the lips were dry, and there were fine wrinkles
everywhere. There was something almost eerie in the youthfulness of the
eyes, which shone in the midst of all her faded souvenirs of beauty.
Had the eyes been old the face would have been beautiful still, but the
contrast they presented to their setting was too striking for beauty.
They gave the old face a curiously exalted look, an expression hardly
indicative of complete sanity, though every feature was expressive in
itself of keen good-sense, quick apprehension, and strong self-reliance.

The figure in its tight-fitting bodice looked like that of a girl of
seventeen, but the stature was no more than that of a well-grown girl of
twelve. The movement with which she had arisen