“I always stuck up for you, gracious knows.  Do you know what has been said of you in Surrey?”

“No.”

“Then I shan’t tell you; if I were you, though, I shouldn’t trouble myself to be overpolite to the folks who have come and gone here, nigh on to twenty years,—­hang ’em!”

A few days before the wedding Aunt Merce and Arthur came home.  Arthur was shy at first regarding the great change, but being agreeably disappointed, grew lively.  I perceived that Aunt Merce had aged since mother’s death; her manner was changed; the same objects no longer possessed an interest.  She looked at me penitentially.  “I wish I could say,” she said, “what I used to say to you,—­that you were ‘possessed.’  Now that there is no occasion for me to comprehend people, I begin to.  My education began wrong end foremost.  I think Mary’s death has taught me something.  Do you think of her?  She was the love of my life.”

“Women do keep stupid a long time; but I think they are capable of growth, beyond the period when men cease to grow or change.”

“Oh, I don’t know anything about men, you know.”

Temperance and I cleaned the house, opened every room, and made every fire-place ready for a fire—­a fire being the chief luxury which I could command.  Baking went on up to within a day of the wedding, under Hepsey’s supervision, who had been summoned as a helper; Fanny was busy everywhere.

“Mr. Morgeson,” said Temperance, “the furniture is too darned shabby for a wedding.”

“It is not mine, you must remember.”

“Plague take the creditors! they know as well as I that you turned Surrey from a herring-weir into a whaling-port, and that the houses they live in were built out of the wages you gave them.  I am thankful that most of them have water in their cellars.”

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The day came.  Alice Morgeson, and Helen with her baby, arrived the night before; and Ben and Mr. Somers drove from Milford early in the afternoon.  Mr. Somers was affable and patronizing.  When introduced to Veronica, he betrayed astonishment.  “She is not like you, Cassandra.  Are you in delicate health, my dear!” addressing her.

“I have a peculiar constitution, I believe.”  He made excuses to her for Mrs. Somers and his daughters to which she answered not a word.  He was in danger of being embarrassed, and I enticed him away from her—­not before she whispered gravely, “Why did he come?” I went over the house with him, he remarking on its situation, for sun and shade, and protection from, or exposure to, the winds; and tasting the water, pronounced it excellent.  He thought I had a true idea of hospitality; the fires everywhere proclaimed that.  Temperance had the air of a retainer; there was an atmosphere about our premises which placed them at a distance from the present.  Then Alice came to my assistance and entertained him so well that I could leave him.