up the village an' I'll follow
'e so quick as I can."

Mr. Chapple thereupon withdrew and Billy turned to the miller. Mr.
Lyddon had wandered once and again up and down the kitchen, then fallen
into his customary chair; and there he now sat, his elbows on his knees,
his hands over his face. He was overwhelmed; his tears hurt him
physically and his head throbbed. Twenty years seemed to have piled
themselves upon his brow in as many minutes.

"Sure I could shed water myself to see you like this here," said Mr.
Blee, sympathetically; "but 't is wan of them eternal circumstances we
'm faaced with that all the rain falled of a wet winter won't wash away.
Theer 's the lines. They 'm a fact, same as the sun in heaven 's a fact.
God A'mighty's Self couldn't undo it wi'out some violent invention; an'
for that matter I doan't see tu clear how even Him be gwaine to magic a
married woman into a spinster again; any more than He could turn a
spinster into a married woman, onless some ordinary human man came
forrard. You must faace it braave an' strong. But that imp o'
Satan--that damn Blanchard bwoy! Theer! I caan't say what I think 'bout
him. Arter all that's been done: the guests invited, the banns axed
out, the victuals bought, and me retracin' my ballet night arter night,
for ten days, to get un to concert pitch--well, 't is a matter tu deep
for mere speech."

"The--the young devil! I shall have no pity--not a spark. I wish to God
he could hang for it!"

"As to that, might act worse than leave it to Jan Grimbal. He'll do
summat 'fore you've done talkin', if I knaw un. An' a son-in-law 's a
son-in-law, though he've brought it to pass by a brigand deed same as
this. 'T is a kicklish question what a man should do to the person of
his darter's husband. You bide quiet an' see what chances. Grimbal's
like to take law into his awn hands, as any man of noble nature might in
this quandary."

The disappointed lover's probable actions offered dreary food for
thought, and the two old men were still conversing when a maid entered
to lay the cloth for supper. Then Billy proceeded to the village and Mr.
Lyddon, unnerved and restless, rambled aimlessly into the open air,
addressed any man or woman who passed from the adjacent cottages, and
querulously announced, to the astonishment of chance listeners, that his
daughter's match was broken off.

An hour later Phoebe reappeared in the kitchen and occupied her usual
place at the supper-tab