and, as she said, I hev to be father and mother both."
"What was it about then?"
"Well, thou sees, he told her he was going to meet the Towton hounds, and he said to her, 'Put on your habit and hev a gallop; it will do you good.' Now, Eleanor wanted to go, but, woman-like, she would not admit it; she looked to be coaxed a bit, happen, but he answered, 'Varry well, she could do as she liked, he would go for his cousin Jane.' Then t' poor lass cried a bit, and he whistled, and when she got varry bad and hysterical with it all, he sent a footman for t' doctor, and so left her by hersen, and went off to t' meet, as if nothing was."
"I think he did just right, Jonathan."
"Then thou knows nowt about it. A man that hes so little human nature in him as to bide a bachelor for more than forty years, like thou hes, isn't able to say a sensible word about womenfolk and their feelings; not he! There's plenty of husbands, Ben, who always say the right thing, and always do the right thing, and, for all that, they are worse to live with than Bluebeards. I can tell thee that."
"St. Paul says—"
