“I hope I haven’t taken too much upon me.  But the fact is, somehow or other, I don’t know how, I got into the spirit of it.”

“You got into the spirit of it because you wanted to help me, and I thank you heartily.”

“Well, I thought it wasn’t a time to mind one’s peas and cues exactly.  And really it’s wonderful how one gets on without them.  I hate formality myself.”

The dear fellow was the most formal man I had ever met.

“Why don’t you dance, Mr Brownrigg?”

“Who’d care to dance with me, sir?  I don’t care to dance with an old woman; and a young woman won’t care to dance with me.”

“I’ll find you a partner, if you will put yourself in my hands.”

“I don’t mind trusting myself to you, sir.”

So I led him to Jane Rogers.  She stood up in respectful awe before the master of her destiny.  There were signs of calcitration in the churchwarden, when he perceived whither I was leading him.  But when he saw the girl stand trembling before him, whether it was that he was flattered by the signs of his own power, accepting them as homage, or that his hard heart actually softened a little, I cannot tell, but, after just a perceptible hesitation, he said: 

“Come along, my lass, and let’s have a hop together.”

She obeyed very sweetly.

“Don’t be too shy,” I whispered to her as she passed me.

And the churchwarden danced very heartily with the lady’s-maid.

I then asked him to take her into the house, and give her something to eat in return for her song.  He yielded somewhat awkwardly, and what passed between them I do not know.  But when they returned, she seemed less frightened at him than when she heard me make the proposal.  And when the company was parting, I heard him take leave of her with the words—­

“Give us a kiss, my girl, and let bygones be bygones.”

Which kiss I heard with delight.  For had I not been a peacemaker in this matter?  And had I not then a right to feel blessed?—­But the understanding was brought about simply by making the people meet—­compelling them, as it were, to know something of each other really.  Hitherto this girl had been a mere name, or phantom at best, to her lover’s father; and it was easy for him to treat her as such, that is, as a mere fancy of his son’s.  The idea of her had passed through his mind; but with what vividness any idea, notion, or conception could be present to him, my readers must judge from my description of him.  So that obstinacy was a ridiculously easy accomplishment to him.  For he never had any notion of the matter to which he was opposed—­only of that which he favoured.  It is very easy indeed for such people to stick to their point.