(i.e. the coat). 'Now come here, you idle dog, and make
yourself useful for once,' I continued. 'Pull off your coat,
and take my place in the field till I come back.'

'Till you come back?--and where are you going, pray?'

'No matter where--the when is all that concerns you;--
and I shall be back by dinner, at least.'

'Oh-oh! and I'm to labour away till then, am I?--and
to keep all these fellows hard at it besides? Well, well I I'll
submit--for once in a way.--Come, my lads, you must look
sharp: I'm come to help you now:-and woe be to that man,
or woman either, that pauses for a moment amongst you--
whether to stare about him, to scratch his head, or blow his
nose--no pretext will serve--nothing but work, work, work
in the sweat of your face,' &c., &c.

Leaving him thus haranguing the people, more to their
amusement than edification, I returned to the house, and,
having made some alteration in my toilet, hastened away to
Wildfell Hall, with the book in my pocket; for it was
destined for the shelves of Mrs. Graham.

'What I then had she and you got on so well together as
to come to the giving and receiving of presents? '--Not pre-
cisely, old buck; this was my first experiment in that line;
and I was very anxious to see the result of it.

We had met several times since the -- Bay excursion,
and I had found she was not averse to my company, pro-
vided I confined my conversation to the discussion of abstract
matters, or topics of common interest;--the moment I touched
upon the sentimental or the complimentary, or made the
slightest approach to tenderness in word or look, I was not
only punished by an immediate change in her manner at
the time, but doomed to find her more cold and distant, if
not entirely inaccessible, when next I sought her company.
This circumstance did not greatly disconcert me, however,
because I attributed it, not so much to any dislike of my
person, as to some absolute resolution against a second
marriage formed prior to the time of our acquaintance,
whether from excess of affection for her late husband, or

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