"I suppose she is to you," admitted Margery, "and I'll tell you why she seems so. 'Tis her great goodness and high religion. Very few can rise to it; and to everyday people mother does seem hard; but it's only because most are soft. There's a bit of jealousy also. Because even good people know they can't be as good as she is all round." Jacob differed and held Mrs. Huxam to be narrow and self-righteous; but he did not say so. "Don't you fear I shall quarrel with her," he said. "She's the mother of my wife to be, and I'll be a very good son to her if she lets me alone." "She lets everybody alone when she can't help them," answered Margery. "She pours her whole thoughts and all her time into religion and the shop. It was a grief to her that I didn't go into the shop; and, looking back, I always wonder how I didn't; but I was such a one for out of doors, and father supported me, and doctor told her I'd be a stronger girl if I lived in the air. Till I was fifteen I was a poor, pinnikin thing." "Never!" "I was then--you look at my first photograph, took with Thomas and Jeremy. But now I'm--so strong as a pony." They ate their meal and Margery did most of the talking, while Jacob, his hunger satisfied, lolled and smoked and listened to her. Presently they set their faces northward and tramped Ugborough Moor, their goal, Three Barrows, towering ahead among lesser hills. Jacob dearly loved the Moor and discoursed upon it for his sweetheart's benefit. "They are cairns, not barrows," he explained, when they stood on the great hill; but Margery was occupied with her old thoughts. "Now even Ugborough looks small," she declared, gazing down whence they had come. "He's not everybody, after all!" The feminine view amused Jacob and he declared the unimportance of size. "It's not the greatness of a thing in bulk; it's the goodness and fineness in quality that matters," he told her. "Now we're lifted up between two rivers. Down there runs the Ernie and away beyond Zeal Plains lie the famous 'rings' and your beloved Auna." They talked of the 'old men' who had built the ruined pounds, alignments and hut circles. "Were they half apes, or creatures much like ourselves?" asked Margery. "Father says they were less than us, and mother doubts if they had souls at all. But mother says there can't be much hope for any before Jesus Christ came, whatever they were." Bullstone laughed. "And little hope for very many that came since, if Mrs. Huxam's right. I trust you are a bit larger hearted in that matter. It's not often you see such a terrible, good woman with such harsh views on the subject of heaven and hell as her." Margery looked uncomfortable. "It's hard to think so few be chosen; but of course there's chapter and verse for it," she answered. "I dare say a lot more will be saved than mother fears."