The Making of a Prig

in a state of partial thaw. Glistening pools of water lay in the fields on the top of the still frozen ground, looking like patches of snow in the pale sunshine

ile above was a deepening blueness of sky and a growing warmth in the sunshine

e beauty of the morning was nothing to them, and the storm, as far as they were concerned, merely meant the acquisition of firewood. They had ma

use I see Jim hisself this blessed morning, I did, and you can't tell me nothing

he same convenient cause, and extracted as much consolation as she could out of three visits to the churchyard. Widow Priest, on the other hand, had buried no one in the little churchyard on the hill. For her husband had committed suicide, and they had laid him to an uneasy rest without the sedative of a

lking wi' strangers here an' strangers there, wi' my man an' five little 'uns to do for. An' then there's always the three grav

Mrs. Jones remained standing in front of her, with one arm thrown round her bundl

ious brother while I goes across to the pit,' I says. An' jest as I says that, up comes the Rector an' the doctor with him, driving friendly like together they was. So I says to our Liz, 'It's Providence,' I says, 'what sent they two blessed creatures here this day,' I says. An' I caught up my shawl, I did, an' went hollerin' after them. 'What is it, Mrs. Jones?' says the Rector, 'is it the baby again?'-'Baby?' I says, 'no, sir; not but what it racks me to he

ignity. When she reached the bend of the road, she turned roun

t the Rectory now, in the best bedroom, he be; an' there he'll likely stop a mo

tale; an' you that's so lonesome too, an' got no one to do for, like I have. Lord, what a hurry some folk do be in, for sure! Eh, but that be M

nse of duty, and she hastened across the road and forgot all

she sped down a grassy lane that was for the most part under water, and stopped at last before a gap in the hedge that was hardly large enough to be noticeable. She squeezed adroitly through it, however, and came in view of an ugly modern house standing in a neglected looking garden, with an untidy farmyard and some stable buildings at the back. Here she was careful to keep a clump of box-trees between herself and the front of th

s, too! And just when I had got a real adventure to tell him,

he iron railings instead, and sat there with her fe

o herself. "I think I shall explode soon, if he doesn't wake up

el window, and the curtains were drawn aside. Katharine forgot all her previous caution, and gave a loud "whoop"

wake the mother," he grumbled. "Why the

mptly. "Hurry up, Ted, and have your bath; it'll make you feel pile

ed. "Last night's steak

e, with a jerk of her head t

s the pudding course at supper now. D

l of impatient reproaches by the

a shove to make it go round quicker," he

fast now, do you?" she said. "At all event

d, smiting her shoulder with rough friendliness.

ng to eat, and

swear, or go to the mother, or someth

d? Isn't there a pantry window, and isn't the larder next to the pantry, a

But I can't get up to

actly six foot, if you can't climb into a window on the ground floor? I can, and I'm only fi

you yesterday afternoon. And nothing ever happens

you, I'm sure. Good-bye," said

e knew he would, and returned with a medley of provisions in his hands. They laughed together at the odd selection he had made,-at the cold pie he was balancing on a slice of bread, and the jam tart that crowne

I'll tell you the news.

other thing. Through with you, Kitty, and don't make the hole any larger! There's always the chance

g the wet twigs in each other's face. But they grew quieter as the interest of the tale deepened; and by the time Katharine had r

"Why wasn't I there? Think of the use I should have been

cruelly. "You're much too clumsy. They wouldn't eve

ve held his beastly head, t

n't he plucky, too! His leg must have hurt frightfully, but he just didn't say a word or utter a sound. All the way home, wheneve

en't seen mu

had toothache. And you're not fit to speak to if

e rest of the

room window. Her cheeks were red with excitement, and she never noticed the look on Ted

Some tourist bounder, I supp

s,-white, and thin, and soft. He's rather pal

Ted, turning away contemptuously. "Sounds more like a mon

ou again some time?"

; I supp

news, wasn

to think s

had hardly crossed the first field before she h

ey, and I'm a horrid pig. Come up after lunch, won't you, Ted? I promise not to tal

e him one of her rough, playful hugs. But for the first ti

sked Katharine, more p

was characteristic of her that the smallest lack of response from some one else would change her mood immediately; and when she entered the dining-room a few

The whole house seems to have gone mad over

nto the chair beside him. But Miss Esther stopped abruptly in the middle of a sentence, and c

e; and Nancy knew, bless her! Besides, the poor young man has been sent to us in his affliction, and there is nothing else to be done,

too much as it is, and this question is not one that concerns you at all.

re the best person to do it. So there is nothing else, is there, Esther, that need detain me? I am rather anxiou

ur attention to anything that really matters. You totally misunderstand my meaning, Cyril. How can

ve, and the Rector g

. It is the duty of the woman to look after the sufferer, is it not?

ot use it yet. The whole business is most inopportune; why should he break his leg in Ivingdon, when he mi

t down again and folded his hands, and said that he was of the same opinion as before

mably not so unwashed? I never can see why the poor people should have the monopoly of impropriety, as well as of the Scriptures. Besides, you can easily reduce him to the level

ne of those women who reserve the best side of their nature for the people who have no real claim upon them; and she took little interest in any one who was neither poor nor afflicted. The unpractical temperament of the Rector both astonished and chafed her, and she had nothing but a fretful endurance for her high-spirited niece, in whom a natu

smiling blandly, "that the poor fel

it, daddy? Daddy dear, just think of all the time we shall have to ourselves, now that she's got Mr. Wilton on her hands! Poo

long hair, with a dou

ok after you as I should," he sa

u so. You are a brick

him impetuously