abode the name of the House Beautiful, as being redolent of the
essence of the Pilgrim's Progress; and the title was so fully
accepted by their friends, that the very postman would soon know it.
He lingered, discoursing on this topic, while Mary repacked his
parcels, and his aunt gave him a message to Jane Beckett, to send the
carpenter to No. 5 before Mary's visit of inspection; but she
prophesied that he would forget; and, in fact, it was no good augury
that he left the knitting-pins behind him on the table, and Mary was
only just in time to catch him with them at the front door.

'Thank you, Mary--you are the universal memory,' he said. 'What rest
you must give my father's methodical spirit! I saw you pile up all
those Blackwoods of mine this morning, just as he was going to fall
upon them.'

'If you saw it, I should have expected you to do it yourself,' said
Mary, in her quaint downright manner.

'Never expect me to do what is expected,' answered he.

'Do you do that because it is not expected?' said Mary, feeling
almost as if he were beyond the pale of reason, as she saw him
adjusting a plant of groundsel in his cap.

'It is for the dicky-bird at my aunt's. There's no lack of it at the
Terrace; but it is an old habit, and there always was an illusion
that Ormersfield groundsel is a superior article.'

'I suppose that is why you grow go much.'