sheets of paper, the scissors running in and out of flowers, tendrils, and
little birds without ever injuring one. The clergymen watched the process,
delighted, while Lennox stepped behind Kate and whispered that he had just
caught the tall Dissenter winking at the dark girl on the right, which was
not true, and was invented for the sake of the opportunity it gave him of
breathing on Kate's neck--a lead up to the love-scene which he had now
decided was to come off as soon as he should find himself alone with her.

They passed through a brick alley with a staircase leading to a platform
built like a ship's deck, and went on through a series of rooms till they
came to a place almost as hot as a Turkish bath, filled with unbaked plates
and dishes. The smell of wet clay drying in steam diffused from underneath
was very unpleasant, and caused one of the ministers to cough violently,
whereupon the guide explained that the platemakers' departments were
considered the most unhealthy of any in the works; the people who worked
there, he said, usually suffered from what is known as the potter's asthma.
This interested Kate, and she delayed the guide with questions as to how
the potter's asthma differed from the ordinary form of the disease, and
when their little procession was again put in motion she told Mr. Lennox
how her husband was affected, and the nights she had spent watching at his
side. But although Lennox listened attentively, she could not help thinking
that he seemed rather glad than otherwise that her husband was an invalid.
The unkind way in which he spoke of sick people shocked her, and she
opposed the opinion that a person in bad health was a disgusting object,
while Lennox took advantage of the occasion to whisper into her ears that
she was far too pretty a woman for an asthmatic husband; and, encouraged by
her blushes, he even hazarded a few coarse jokes anent the poor husband's
deficiencies. How could a man kiss if he couldn't breathe, for if there was
a time when breath was essential, according to him, it was when four lips
meet.