'Don't Mrs. Hayward me!' said Margery sharply. 'I won't be Mrs.
Hayward!'

Jim paused. 'Well, you are she by law, and that was all I meant,' he
said mildly.

'I said I would acknowledge no such thing, and I won't. A thing
can't be legal when it's against the wishes of the persons the laws
are made to protect. So I beg you not to call me that anymore.'

'Very well, Miss Tucker,' said Jim deferentially. 'We can live on
exactly as before. We can't marry anybody else, that's true; but
beyond that there's no difference, and no harm done. Your father
ought to be told, I suppose, even if nobody else is? It will partly
reconcile him to you, and make your life smoother.'

Instead of directly replying, Margery exclaimed in a low voice:

'O, it is a mistake--I didn't see it all, owing to not having time to
reflect! I agreed, thinking that at least I should get reconciled to
father by the step. But perhaps he would as soon have me not married
at all as married and parted. I must ha' been enchanted--bewitched--
when I gave my consent to this! I only did it to please that dear
good dying nobleman--though why he should have wished it so much I
can't tell!'

'Nor I neither,' said Jim. 'Yes, we've been fooled into it,
Margery,' he said, with extraordinary gravity. 'He's had his way wi'
us, and now we've got to suffer for it. Being a gentleman of
patronage, and having bought several loads of lime o' me, and having