Mr Whittlestaff, when he was left alone in the long walk, was disturbed by many troublesome thoughts. The knowledge that his housekeeper was out on the road, and that her drunken disreputable husband was playing the fool for the benefit of all the idlers that had sauntered out from Alresford to see him, added something to his grief. Why should not the stupid woman remain indoors, and allow him, her master, to send for the police? She had declared that she would go with her husband, and he could not violently prevent her. This was not much when added to the weight of his care as to Mary Lawrie, but it seemed to be the last ounce destined to break the horse\'s back, as is the proverbial fate of all last ounces.

Just as he was about to collect his thoughts, so as to resolve what it might be his duty to do in regard to Mary, Mrs Baggett appeared before him on the walk with her bonnet on her head. "What are you going to do, you stupid woman?"

"I am a-going with he," she said, in the midst of a torrent of sobs and tears. "It\'s a dooty. They says if you does your dooty all will come right in the end. It may be, but I don\'t see it no further than taking him back to Portsmouth."

"What on earth are you going to Portsmouth for now? And why? why now? He\'s not more drunk than he has been before, nor yet less abominable. Let the police lock him up for the night, and send him back to Portsmouth in the morning. Why should you want to go with him now?"

"Because you\'re going to take a missus," said Mrs Baggett, still sobbing.

"It\'s more than I know; or you know; or anyone knows," and Mr Whittlestaff spoke as though he had nearly reduced himself to his housekeeper\'s position.

"Not marry her!" she exclaimed.

"I cannot say. If you will let me alone to manage my own affairs, it will be best."

"That man has been here interfering. You don\'t mean to say that you\'re going to be put upon by such a savage as that, as has just come home from South Africa. Diamonds, indeed! I\'d diamond him! I don\'t believe, not in a single diamond. They\'re all rubbish and paste. If you\'re going to give her up to that fellow, you\'re not the gentleman I take you for."

"But if I don\'t marry you won\'t have to go," he said, unable to refrain from so self-evident an argument.

"Me going! What\'s me going? What\'s me or that drunken old reprobate out there to the likes of you? I\'d stay, only if it was to see that Mr John Gordon isn\'t let to put his foot here in this house; and then I\'d go. John Gordon, indeed! To come up between you and her, when you had settled your mind and she had settled hern! If she favours John Gordon, I\'ll tear her best frock off her back."

"How dare you speak in that way of the lady who is to be your mistress?"

"She ain\'t to be my mistress. I won\'t have no mistress. When her time is come, I shall be in the poorhouse at Portsmouth, because I shan\'t be able to earn a penny to buy gin for him." As she said this, Mrs Baggett sobbed bitterly.

"You\'re enough to drive a man mad. I don\'t know what it is you want, or you don\'t want."

"I wishes to see Miss Lawrie do her dooty, and become your wife, as a lady should do. You wishes it, and she ought to wish it too. Drat her! If she is going back from her word—"

"She is not going back from her word. Nothing is more excellent, nothing more true, nothing more trustworthy than Miss Lawrie. You should not allow yourself to speak of her in such language."

"Is it you, then, as is going back?"

"I do not know. To tell the truth, Mrs Baggett, I do not know."

"Then let me tell you, sir. I\'m an old woman whom you\'ve known all your life pretty nigh, and you can trust me. Don\'t give up to none of \'em. You\'ve got her word, and keep her to it. What\'s the good o\' your fine feelings if you\'re to break your heart. You means well by her, and will make her happy. Can you say as much for him? When them diamonds is gone, what\'s to come next? I ain\'t no trust in diamonds, not to live out of, but only in the funds, which is reg\'lar. I wouldn\'t let her see John Gordon again,—never, till she was Mrs Whittlestaff. After that she\'ll never go astray; nor yet won\'t her thoughts."

"God bless you! Mrs Baggett," he said.

"She\'s one of them when she\'s your own she\'ll remain your own all out. She\'ll stand the washing. I\'m an old woman, and I knows \'em."

"And yet you cannot live with such a lady as her?"

"No! if she was one of them namby-pambys as\'d let an old woman keep her old place, it might do."

"She shall love you always for what you said just now."

"Love me! I don\'t doubt her loving me. She\'ll love me because she is loving—not that I am lovable. She\'ll want to do a\'most everything about the house, and I shall want the same; and her wants are to stand uppermost,—that is, if she is to be Mrs Whittlestaff."

"I do not know; I have to think about it."

"Don\'t think about it no more; but just go in and do it. Don\'t have no more words with him nor yet with her,—nor yet with yourself. Let it come on just as though it were fixed by fate. It\'s in your own hands now, sir, and don\'t you be thinking of being too good-natured; there ain\'t no good comes from it. A man may maunder away his mind in softnesses till he ain\'t worth nothing, and don\'t do no good to no one. You can give her bread to eat, and clothes to wear, and can make her respectable before all men and women. What has he to say? Only that he is twenty years younger than you. Love! Rot it! I suppose you\'ll come in just now, sir, and see my boxes when they\'re ready to start." So saying, she turned round sharply on the path and left him.

In spite of the excellent advice which Mr Whittlestaff had received from his housekeeper, bidding him not have any more words even with himself on the matter, he could not but think of all the arguments which John Gordon had used to him. According to Mrs Baggett, he ought to content himself with knowing that he could find food and raiment and shelter for his intended wife, and also in feeling that he had her promise, and her assurance that that promise should be respected. There was to him a very rock in all this, upon which he could build his house with absolute safety. And he did not believe of her that, were he so to act, she would turn round upon him with future tears or neglect her duty, because she was ever thinking of John Gordon. He knew that she would be too steadfast for all that, and that even though there might be some sorrow at her heart, it would be well kept down, out of his sight, out of the sight of the world at large, and would gradually sink out of her own sight too. But if it be given to a man "to maunder away his mind in softnesses," he cannot live otherwise than as nature has made him. Such a man must maunder. Mrs Baggett had understood accurately the nature of his character; but had not understood that, as was his character, so must he act. He could not alter his own self. He could not turn round upon himself, and bid himself be other than he was. It is necessary to be stern and cruel and determined, a man shall say to himself. In this particular emergency of my life I will be stern and cruel. General good will come out of such a line of conduct. But unless he be stern and cruel in other matters also,—unless he has been born stern and cruel, or has so trained himself,—he cannot be stern and cruel for that occasion only. All this Mr Whittlestaff knew of himself. As sure as he was there thinking over John Gordon and Mary Lawrie, would he maunder away his mind in softnesses. He feared it of himself, was sure of it of himself, and hated himself because it was so.

He did acknowledge to himself the truth of the position as asserted by John Gordon. Had the man come but a day earlier, he would have been in time to say the first word; and then, as Mr Whittlestaff said to himself, there would not for him have been a chance. And in such case there would have been no reason, as far as Mr Whittlestaff could see, why John Gordon should be treated other than as a happy lover. It was the one day in advance which had given him the strength of his position. But it was the one day also wh............