aid he. "I raly didn't know. Well, I'm doin' pratty well
too, an' I've got a nice little place--"

"Nay," put in Margaret, "it isn't mich of a place; this here's twice
th' size, an' a dale coomfortabler. Nay, if we was to get wed, ye'd
ha' to coom here--I wouldn't go yonder."

Ted started for a moment, somewhat taken back by the matter-of-fact
coolness with which his advances were received; he might as well
finish the job now however, he reflected, and as he did not mean the
business to proceed beyond the "shouting" stage, it would not hurt him
to make any concession that Margaret might please to exact.

"Ah, I could coom here," he remarked heroically; "my little nook isn't
sich an ill place for all that; but I'll do it, an' I'll gi' ye my
wage reg'lar an' do th' dirty work all round, an'--an' turn teetotal
if ye want it."

"Naw," said Miss Heptonstall, "I wouldn't go as far as that; I like a
glass o' beer mysel' at dinner-time--I allus keep a little cask i' th'
buttery yon--but you'll ha' to gi' o'er callin' at th' Thornleigh
Arms."

"Tisn't like I'd want to be callin' at th' Thornleigh Arms if I'd a
coomfortable place like this to set in o' neets, and a missus o' my
own to look to."

He had for a moment contemplated qualifying the word "missus" with
some such adjective as "bonny," but a glance at Margaret's face nipped
this poetical flower in the bud. After a moment she sat upright,
gazing at him stolidly.

"I'll think on 't," she said. "Theer's things for it an' theer's
things agin it. One thing's agin it--I dunnot fancy your talk out o'
th' newspapers--speakin' ill o' th' Queen an' that--I reckon we'd ha'
words if ye carried on that road when we was mon an' wife."

Wharton rubbed his hands and looked embarrassed; he had hitherto had
no hesitation in perjuring himself, but he could not for the life of
him swallow his principles.

Margaret marched across the room and took down a framed photograph
from a shelf of the old-fashioned dresser. It represented Her Majesty
in royal robes.

"This here Canon give me at th' time o' th' Jubilee," she pursued.
"I've vallyed it--well, I couldn't say how mich I've vallyed it an'
_do_ vally it. See here, dunnot hoo look noble? I couldn't do wi'
onybody i' th' house as didn't respect this same as I do."

Ted cast a depreciating eye towards the portrait, but, after a glance
at it, suddenly regained his tongue and his spirits.

"See here, Miss Heptonstall," he cried eage