; but
Guss had managed to stop her. "What's the good of coming to a house for
three days? You said you meant to stay a week. They know what she is
now, and the harm's done. It was your own fault for bringing her. I
don't see why I'm to be thrown over because you've made a mistake about
a vulgar old woman. We've nowhere to go to till November, and now we
are out of town for heaven's sake let us stay as long as we can." In
this way Guss carried her point, watching her opportunity for a little
conversation with her former lover.

At last the opportunity came. It was not that Jack had avoided her, but
that it was necessary that she should be sure of having half-an-hour
alone with him. At last she made the opportunity, calling upon him to
walk with her one Sunday morning when all other folk were in
church--or, perhaps, in bed. "No; I won't go to church," she had said
to Aunt Ju. "What is the use of your asking 'why not?' I won't go. They
are quite accustomed at Rudham to people not going to church. I always
go in a stiff house, but I won't go here. When you are at Rome you
should do as the Romans do. I don't suppose there'll be half-a-dozen
there out of the whole party." Aunt Ju went to church as a matter of
course, and the opportunity of walking in the grounds with Jack was
accomplished. "Are you going to Killancodlem?" she said.

"I suppose I shall, for a few days."

"Have you got anything to say before you go?"

"Nothing particular."

"Of course I don't mean to me."

"I've nothing particular to say to anybody just at present. Since I've
been here that wretched old Marquis has been my chief fate. It's quite
a pleasure to hear him abuse the Dean."

"And the Dean's daughter?"

"He has not much good to say about her either."

"I'm not surprised at that, Jack. And what do you say to him about the
Dean's daughter?"

"Very little, Guss."

"And what are you going to say to me about her?"

"Nothing at all, Guss."

"She's all the world to you, I suppose?"

"What's the use of your saying that? In one sense she's nothing to me.
My belief is that the only man she'll ever care a pin about is her
husband. At any rate she does not care a straw for me."

"Nor you for her?"

"Well;--Yes I do. She's one of my pet friends. There's nobody I like
being with better."

"And if she were not married?"

"God knows what might have happened. I might have asked her to have me,
because she has got money of her own. What's the u