Aha!' he concluded again, with a bitterness of unexpected strength, 'would to Heaven I had come straight back here!' As the dance brought round one neighbour after another the re-united pair were thrown into juxtaposition with Bob Heartall among the rest who had been called in; one whose chronic expression was that he carried inside him a joke on the point of bursting with its own vastness.

He took occasion now to let out a little of its quality, shaking his head at Selina as he addressed her in an undertone-- 'This is a bit of a topper to the bridegroom, ho ho! 'Twill teach en the liberty you'll expect when you've married en!' 'What does he mean by a "topper,"' the sergeant-major asked, who, not being of local extraction, despised the venerable local language, and also seemed to suppose 'bridegroom' to be an anticipatory name for himself.

'I only hope I shall never be worse treated than you've treated me to-night!' Selina looked frightened.

'He didn't mean you, dear,' she said as they moved on.

'We thought perhaps you knew what had happened, owing to your coming just at this time.