for colour, and that's a damask rose that blooms in May on an old
bush in the front yard. When all is said, however, that young
Weatherby is no clodhopper, you know, and I'm not sure that he
isn't worthier of her than any highsounding somebody across the
water would have been. He can love twice as hard, I'll wager, and
that's the chief thing, after all; it's worth more than big
titles or fine clothes--or even than dead grandfathers, with due
respect to Cynthia. I tell you, Lila may never stir from the
midst of these tobacco fields; she may be buried alive all her
days between these muddy roads that lead heaven knows where, and
yet she may live a lot bigger and fuller life than she might have
done with all London at her feet, as they say it was at your
Greataunt Susannah's. The person who has to have outside props to
keep him straight must have been made mighty crooked at the
start, and Lila's not like that."

Christopher stooped and pulled Spy's ears.

"That's as good a way to look at it as any other, I reckon," he
remarked; "and now I've got to hurry the shoeing of the mare."

He crossed over and joined Lila and Jim before the henhouse door,
where he put the big fowls to noisy flight.

"Well, you're a trusty neighbour, " he cried good-humoredly,
striking Jim a friendly blow that sent him reeling out into the
path.

Lila passed her hand in a sweeping movement round the inside of
the basin and flirted the last drops of dough from her