coat and general air of civilized well-being.

Hazel came nearer.

'He inna bad to live along of,' she confided, with a nod towards the
cottage. 'O' course, he's crossways time and again, and a devil's
temper.'

'You mustn't speak of your father like that, Hazel.'

'What for not? He _be_ like that.'

'Are all these apple-trees yours?' he asked to change the subject.

'No, they'm father's. But I get the windfa'ls and the bruised 'uns. I
allus see'--she smiled winningly--'as there's plenty of them. Foxy
likes 'em. He found me at it once bruising of 'em. God a'mighty! what a
hiding he give me!'

Edward felt depressed. He could not harmonize Hazel's personality with
his mother's; he was shocked at her expressions; he was sufficiently
fastidious to recoil from dirt; the thought of Abel as a father-in-law
was little short of appalling. Yet, in spite of all these things, he
had felt such elation, such spring rapture when Hazel danced; the world
took on such strange new colours when she looked at him that he knew he
must love her for ever. He felt that as his emotions grew stronger--and
they were becoming more and more like a herd of young calves out at
grass--his ways of expression must increase in correctness.

'Hazel--' he began.