get wed, ye'd ha' to coom here—I wouldn't go yonder." Ted started for a moment, somewhat taken back by the matter-of-fact coolness with which his advances were received; he might as well finish the job now however, he reflected, and as he did not mean the business to proceed beyond the "shouting" stage, it would not hurt him to make any concession that Margaret might please to exact. "Ah, I could coom here," he remarked heroically; "my little nook isn't sich an ill place for all that; but I'll do it, an' I'll gi' ye my wage reg'lar an' do th' dirty work all round, an'—an' turn teetotal if ye want it." "Naw," said Miss Heptonstall, "I wouldn't go as far as that; I like a glass o' beer mysel' at dinner-time—I allus keep a little cask i' th' buttery yon—but you'll ha' to gi' o'er callin' at th' Thornleigh Arms." "Tisn't like I'd want to be callin' at th' Thornleigh Arms if I'd a coomfortable place like this to set in o' neets, and a missus o' my own to look to." He had for a moment contemplated qualifying the word "missus" with some such adjective as "bonny," but a glance at Margaret's face nipped this poetical flower in the bud. After a moment she sat upright, gazing at him stolidly. "I'll think on 't," she said. "Theer's things for it an' theer's things agin it. One thing's agin it—I dunnot fancy your talk out o' th' newspapers—speakin' ill o' th' Queen an' that—I reckon we'd ha' words if ye carried on that road when we was mon an' wife." Wharton rubbed his hands and looked embarrassed; he had hitherto had no hesitation in perjuring himself, but he could not for the life of him swallow his principles. Margaret marched across the room and took down a framed photograph from a shelf of the old-fashioned dresser. It represented Her Majesty in royal robes. "This here Canon give me at th' time o' th' Jubilee," she pursued. "I've vallyed it—well, I couldn't say how mich I've vallyed it an' do vally it. See here, dunnot hoo look noble? I couldn't do wi' onybody i' th' house as didn't respect this same as I do." Ted cast a depreciating eye towards the portrait, but, after a glance at it, suddenly regained his tongue and his spirits. "See here, Miss Heptonstall," he cried eagerly, "th' Queen's not like that! Theer now, it