Thursday. The—the happy couple"—(and Mr. Benthall gave a cynical grin as he said the words)—"the happy couple are away now on their wedding trip."
"Well, I niver did! I niver did! The old squire to come and marry Miss Marian! He that was allays so mumchance and so meek, and had a sweet tooth in 's head after all! I thowt it was to talk wi' the poor old master about book-larnin' and such stuff that he comed here! I'd niver an idee that he'd an eye for the young gell."
"Only shows how sly these old gentlemen can be when they choose, Mrs. Covey," said Mr. Benthall, much amused, "if they can deceive such sharp eyes as yours."
"Dear heart, I've no cause to call mine sharp eyes any longer, I think," said the old woman, shaking her head, "for I was took in by both on 'em. I niver thowt Miss Marian would throw t'other one over, that I niver did."
"What's that you're saying, Mrs. Covey?" asked Mr. Benthall, sharply.
"I was sayin' that I allays thowt Miss Marian would howld by the t'other one, and"
"Other one? What other one? I never heard of there being any 'other one,' as you call it, in regard to Miss Ashurst."
"No! You didn't, I dare say! Nor didn't not no one else!" said the old lady, with a frightful redundancy of negatives; "but I did."
"And who was this 'other one,' if one may ask, Mrs. Covey?"
"One may ask, and there's only one can answer, and that one's me. Ah, well, there's no harm in tellin', now that she's married and all that, though I niver opened my mouth about it before to livin' soul, hopin' it would come all right like. Miss Marian were keepin' company wi' young Joyce!"
"Joyce! Joyce!" repeated Mr. Benthall. "What, young Mr. Joyce, who was one of Mr. Ashurst's masters here?"
"That very same! ay, and he were Miss Ashurst's master, he were, at the time I'm speakin' of!" said the old woman.
"Too much kitchen fire has brought on softening of this old person's brain!" said Mr. Benthall to himself. "There can't be a shadow of foundation for what she says, or I should surely have heard of it in the village!" Then, aloud, "What makes you think this, Mrs. Covey?"
"What meks me think it? Why, my own eyesight meks me think it, and that's the best think I can have i' the matter," replied the old woman, waxing rather cross at her master's evident incredulity. "Nobody niver spoke of it, becos' nobody knowed it, but I've sat at the kitchen window o' summer nights and seen 'em walkin' roun' the garden for hours thegither, hand-in-hand, or him wi' his arms round her waist, and I know what that means, tho' I may be an old fool!"
"No, no, Mrs. Covey, no one ever thought that for a minute," said Mr. Benthall, anxious to soothe the old woman's offended dignity, and really very much interested in the news she had given him. "No doubt you're quite correct, only, as I had never heard a hint of this before, I was rather startled at the suddenness of the announcement. Tell me now, had Mr. Ashurst any notion of what was going on?"
"Wasn't the schoolmaster, poor feckless critter, allays buzzed in th' heed wi' book-larnin' and troubles o' all sorts? No bittle as iver flew war blinder, nor deafer, than my poor owd master in matters what didn't concern him!"
"Nor Mrs. Ashurst?"
"Ah, the poor sickly thing, wi' pains here and aches there, and so dillicate, and niver 'nuff strength to look after what she ought, let alone anything else! No! they kept it to themselves, the young pipple, and nobody knowed nowt about it but me, and they didn't know as I knew, for the kitchen window, as you know, is hid wi' fuzz and creepers, and you can see out wi'out bein' seen! Lor, lor, and so she's gone and married that owd man! And t'other one's gone for sojer, they say, and all that story, as I used to sit i' the kitchen and make up in my head, will never be! Lor, lor, what a world it is!"
Mr. Benthall was very much surprised at the information which had come to him in that odd way. He had never thought much about Marian Ashurst, but he knew perfectly well that popular opinion in Helmingham and the neighbourhood held to the fact that she had never had any love-affair. He was disposed to regard her with rather more favour than before, for if what Mrs. Covey stated of her were true, it showed that at one time she must have possessed a heart, though she had allowed herself to ignore its promptings under the overweening influence of avarice. Mr. Benthall thought a good deal over this story. He wondered when, how, and under what circumstances Miss Ashurst had broken her
