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the village who had ever said no to him. This too amused, delighted her, to have the upper hand over those who rode past in their fine carriages with two footmen, ignoring her.
    She hugged to herself the conquest. Those on the hill whom she had so long secretly envied now wanted her, and she would not go to them. It was impossible not to consider how life would have changed if she had agreed to marry Grayshott. No more teaching recalcitrant, ill-behaved youngsters, who wore one to a bone with their disinterest in learning. No more toadying to Mr. Umpton, no more rising at seven. But better than that, to live on the fabulous hill, to walk up the aisle to church on Sunday with that august party. To drive into Questnow with them, and be bowed to in the shops, to be on the inside of all that life, it was hard to say no. She almost regretted her decision, till the image of Mr. Grayshott darted into her head—drunken, dissolute, old, and with eyes that devoured her. She was quite sure he was mad. No, she had made the right decision, but it was the hardest one she had ever made.
    * * * *
    DeVigne had his carriage and men sent on to the Hall and stopped at the Dower House to see Jane. Thedame was waiting for him, peering through the lancet windows of her drawing room. “Well, what did she say?” she asked, before he had off his hat.
    “No. She would not hear of it. Wouldn’t consider it at all. She was paralyzed with shock, and so was I. Do you realize she only met Andrew two times in her life?” he asked.
    “I knew he had not been courting her in the regular way. You didn’t smile, or butter her up, I suppose?”
    “She is not the butterable sort. Too stiff for that stunt. She has developed a schoolteacher’s eye that made me feel ten years old and very gauche. She certainly knows her own mind, and doesn’t hesitate to speak it, either.”
    “One cannot but wonder what set Andrew off on this passion for her.”
    “She’s mighty attractive at close range,” he went on, as they entered the drawing room and took up a seat. “The eyes, you recall, did the trick. Very fine eyes too, but hardly soulful. They were sparkling with anger throughout my visit. Andrew always had good taste in ladies. Louise was considered a bit of a beauty in her youth as well.”
    “What’s to do, then? We must have Andrew committed and see a solicitor about getting Roberta without delay.”
    “Pity. She would have made such a good guardian for Bobbie. Very ladylike, and a firm hand on her.”
    “Too firm a hand is not what the child is used to. I wouldn’t like that.”
    “I don’t think she’d be too firm. There was some softer quality in her when she smiled.”
    Jane regarded him closely. “She had the wits to throw her cap at you, I see.”
    “Not in the least. It wasn’t that sort of a smile. She thought we wanted a governess, and would have leapt at it. She’d be happy enough to get out of that school, I think. We’ll wait a little, Jane, and see what develops, shall we?”
    “What will develop is that Andrew will very soon die.”
    * * * *
    Over the next three weeks, Miss Sommers debated on and off with herself whether she had done right. Every morning at seven when she arose, with the day hardly bright, and put on her kettle to boil, she regretted that she was not between the linens at the mansion on the hill, having her breakfast in bed, but not for several hours yet. Cocoa she would have, not tea.
    As she walked briskly along the road, she would think, If I had accepted the offer, I would be in a carriage, not walking. And when she received her twenty-five pounds on quarter day, she thought: He mentioned a settlement. I wonder how much it would have been. But these were only vagrant thoughts. On the whole, she knew she had made the wise choice.
    Mr. Umpton took a keen interest in deVigne’s visit to the school. The true reason for his coming could not be told, so Delsie invented a different story to appease him, one