"Then take care: people in a mist always think they are going the
right way when they are going directly wrong."

"If I only knew the right way!" he said.

"That's true, Mr. Forrester," said Mrs. Parker. "If we only knew the
right way; and people tell you to be guided by Providence, but I say
I never know when it is Providence and when it is myself;" and she
threaded her way down the narrow stairs, followed by the rest of the
party.




III.


The dining-room, with its low roof, its crimson walls, dark furniture
and handsome fire (the fires at Cockhoolet were always handsome:
Bessie was the architect and superintended the building herself; they
never looked harum-scarum nor meaningless nor thoughtless, nor as if
they were not meant to burn; they combined taste, comfort, and, as a
consequence, economy; everything tasteful and comfortable is in the
long run economical), its table-cloth, glistening like the summit of
the Alps and laden with good things, looked a place where people even
not in love with each other might, unless naturally perverse, be very
happy.

Mrs. Parker, being from town, was in raptures with every country