"Now, Miss Janice, say you'll not run off with him. I'll
--I'll try ter do as you ask, if only you--"

"So long as you--as you don't--don't bother me, I
won't," promised Janice; "but the instant--"

And leaving the sentence thus broken, the girl left Philemon,
and fled to her room.


XVII
IN THE NAME OF LIBERTY

The scheme devised by Janice to keep Philemon
at arm's length would hardly have succeeded for
long, had not the squire been so preoccupied with
the election and with the now active farm work
that he paid little heed to the course of true love. Poor
Phil was teased by him now and again for his "offishness;"
but Janice carefully managed that their interviews were not
held in the presence of her parents, and so the elders did not
come to a realising sense of the condition, but really believed
that the courtship was advancing with due progress to the port
of matrimony.

Though this was a respite to Janice, she herself knew that
it was at best the most temporary of expedients, and that
the immediate press of affairs once over, her marriage with
Philemon was sure to be pushed to a conclusion. Already her