between.' Please excuse the quotation. You wouldn't think
it to look at me--I'm a great reader."

"Is it a long journey to Sir Jervis Redwood's house?" Emily asked, at a
loss what else to say to a woman who was already becoming unendurable to
her.

Mrs. Rook looked at the journey from an oppressively cheerful point of
view.

"Oh, Miss Emily, you shan't feel the time hang heavy in my company. I
can converse on a variety of topics, and if there is one thing more than
another that I like, it's amusing a pretty young lady. You think me a
strange creature, don't you? It's only my high spirits. Nothing strange
about me--unless it's my queer Christian name. You look a little dull,
my dear. Shall I begin amusing you before we are on the railway? Shall I
tell you how I came by my queer name?"

Thus far, Alban had controlled himself. This last specimen of the
housekeeper's audacious familiarity reached the limits of his endurance.

"We don't care to know how you came by your name," he said.

"Rude," Mrs. Rook remarked, composedly. "But nothing surprises me,
coming from a man."

She turned to Emily. "My father and mother were a wicked married
couple," she continued, "before I was born. They 'got religion,' as
the saying is, at a Methodist meeting in a field. When I came into the
world--I don't know how you feel, miss; I protest against being brought
into the world without asking my leave first--my mother was determined
to dedicate me to piety, before I was out of my long clothes. What
name do you suppose she had me christened by? She chose it, or made it,
herself--the name of 'Righteous'! Righteous Rook! Was there ever a poor
baby degraded by such a ridiculous name before? It's needless to say,
when I write letters, I sign R. Rook--and leave people to think it's
Rosamond, or Rosabelle, or something sweetly pretty of that kind.
You should have seen my husband's face when he first heard that his
sweetheart's name was 'Righteous'! He was on the point of kissing me,
and he stopped. I daresay he felt sick. Perfectly natural under the
circumstances."

Alban tried to stop her again. "What time does the train go?" he asked.

Emily entreated him to restrain himself, by a look. Mrs. Rook was still
too inveterately amiable to take offense. She opened her traveling-bag
briskly, and placed a railway guide in Alban's hands.

"I've heard that the women do the men's work in foreign parts," she
said. "But this is England; and I am an