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In regard to the hospitality proles went about her ith sufficient alacrity She was quite willing that the young man should have a supper, and she did understand that, so far as the preparation of the supper went, she owed her service to her grandfather She therefore went to work herself, and gave directions to the servant girl who assisted her in keeping her grandfather's house But as she did this, she determined that she would make John Crumb understand that she would never be his wife Upon that she was now fully resolved As she went about the kitchen, taking down the ha the slices that were to be broiled, and as she trussed the fowl that was to be boiled for John Crumb, she made mental comparisons between hih present to her at the moment, the mealy, floury head of the one, with hair stiff with perennial dust frolossy dark well-coht, so seductive, that she was ever longing to twine her fingers a them And she remembered the heavy, flat, broad honest face of the meal like a huge white pro eyes, frorit;--and then also she remembered the white teeth, the beautiful soft lips, the perfect eyebrows, and the rich complexion of her London lover Surely a lease of Paradise with the one, though but for one short year, would be well purchased at the price of a life with the other! 'It's no good going against love,' she said to herself, 'and I won't try He shall have his supper, and be told all about it, and then go home He cares more for his supper than he do for me' And then, with this final resolution firrandfather wanted her to leave Sheep's Acre Very well She had a little money of her own, and would take herself off to London She knehat people would say, but she cared nothing for old women's tales She would kno to take care of herself, and could always say in her own defence that her grandfather had turned her out of Sheep's Acre

Seven had been the hour named, and punctually at that hour John Crumb knocked at the back door of Sheep's Acre farm-house Nor did he come alone He was accoay, who, as all Bungay kneas to be his best e John Crumb's character was not without any fine attributes He could earnearned it could spend and keep it in fair proportion He was afraid of no work, and,--to give him his due,-- was afraid of nothat he did And after his fashion he had chivalrous ideas about wo to thrash any erous antagonist to anyto hi that he was slow of speech, and what the world calls stupid in regard to all forood meal from bad as well as any man, and the price at which he could buy it so as to leave hi He knew the value of a clear conscience, and without ument had discovered for himself that honesty is in truth the best policy Joe Mixet, as dapper of person and glib of tongue, had often declared that any one buying John Cruht; but there had been a want of prudence, a lack of worldly sagacity, in the way in which Crules to becoay His love was now an old affair; and, though he never talked much, whenever he did talk, he talked about that He was proud of Ruby's beauty, and of her fortune, and of his own status as her acknowledged lover,--and he did not hide his light under a bushel Perhaps the publicity so produced had soainst the man whose offer she had certainly once accepted Nohen he ca heard more than once or twice that there was a difficulty with Ruby,--he brought his friend Mixet with hih to be present at his triumph 'If here isn't Joe Mixet,' said Ruby to herself 'Was there ever such a stoopid as John Cru stoopid'