"Don't you know what the county is? How delightful! The 'county' is the
county families--landed gentry--very ancient and swagger and all that
--much more so than the titled people often. It was very great promotion
for the daughter of one of the town to marry into the county--or would
have been except that Mother was county also." She spoke with mock
solemnity.

"How delightfully picturesque and medieval!" exclaimed Stefan. "The
Guelphs and Ghibellines, eh?"

"Yes," Mary replied, "only there is no feud, and it doesn't seem so
romantic when you're in it. The man my sister married I thought was
frightfully boring except for his family place, and being in the army,
which is rather decent. He talks," she smiled, "like a phonograph with
only one set of records."

"Wondrous Being--Winged Goddess--" chanted Stefan, stopping before her
and apostrophizing the sky or the boat-deck--"a goddess with a sense of
humor!" And he positively glowed upon her.

"About the first point I know nothing," she laughed, walking on again
beside him, "but for the second," and her face became a little grave,
"you have to have some humor if you are a girl in Lindum, or you go
under."

"Tell me, tell me all about it," he urged. "I've never met an English
girl before, _nor_ a goddess, and I'm so interested!"

They rested for a time against the bulwarks. The wind was dropping, and
the spume seethed against the black side of the ship without force from