32 "LOW LIFE."
the weight of the fall. He said at last, as he took off his hat
and placed it carefully beyond the reach of damage, while he
gave a jerk of his elbow in the direction of Prince, standing
uncertain on the threshold, a most unattractive object in his
skeleton leanness, his unthrifty coat, and the greed which the
glimpse of the victuals called up-in spite of his clumsy efforts.
to conceal his feelings-in his winking eyes and sniffing nose
-" Well, Nanse, there is our legacy."
 The woman stood bewildered; her colour went and came.
" Oh, Miles you cannot mean it?" she cried at last; Uncle
Jerry and you could not be so cruel ?"
 Woman, I had nothing to do with it," he said, flinging
himself heavily into the chair set for him; "and was it not
better than to come back empty-handed ?"
 She understood now that he was in earnest-that he and
she had been defrauded, as she called it in her hot heart, of
the time, trouble, and expense of his journey, as well as of
their justifiable expectations, and that there was nothing left
for .Miles but to be grimly merry at her expense.
 She hesitated, for she was a quick-tempered woman, prone
to resent fun of which she was the butt, and any advantage
taken of her ignorance. Yet she had loved her husband for
the very oddity which expressed itself in this shape. She had
been proud of her conquest of him when she had been a
pretty, smart, popular servant-girl, and he had enjoyed the
reputation of being the most humoursome," no less than the
most long-headed, steady, middle-aged bachelor in the place.
His humour, even in company with his long-headedness and
steadiness, had not brought him great worldly prosperity, yet
she had never regretted her choice. There must have been