of the general kicking spirit. Take my advice, dearie! You marry
Mr. Robin!--as good a boy as ever breathed--he'll be a kind fond
'usband to ye, and arter all that's what a woman thrives best on--
kindness--an' you've 'ad it all your life up to now--"

"Priscilla," interrupted Innocent, decidedly--"I cannot marry
Robin! You know I cannot! A poor nameless girl like me!--why, it
would be a shame to him in after-years. Besides, I don't love him
--and it's wicked to marry a man you don't love."

Priscilla smothered a sound between a grunt and a sigh.

"You talks a lot about love, child," she said--"but I'm thinkin'
you don't know much about it. Them old books an' papers you found
up in the secret room are full of nonsense, I'm pretty sure--an'
if you believes that men are always sighin' an' dyin' for a woman,
you're mistaken--yes, you are, lovey! They goes where they can be
made most comfortable--an' it don't matter what sort o' woman
gives the comfort so long as they gits it."

Innocent smiled, faintly.

"You don't know anything about it, Priscilla," she answered--"You
were never married."

"Thank the Lord and His goodness, no!" said Priscilla, with an
emphatic sniff--"I've never been troubled with the whimsies of a
man, which is worse than all the megrims of a woman any day. I've
looked arter Mr. Jocelyn in a way--but he's no sort of a man to
worry about--he just goes reglar to the farmin'--an' that's all--a