I saw through it at once. They were merely throwing a sop to Cerberus, as it were, expecting that the little compliment would pacify me--treating me as a cross child to be appeased with lollipops. Tom was angry when I expressed my views; he said--what I am sure he was very sorry for afterwards--that I was "the most perverse woman that ever walked;" and it really seemed at one time as if this miserable affair was destined to wreck the happiness of a marriage which for more than a quarter of a century had been the most perfect in the world. I had never imagined it possible that _my_ husband could be morose and rude--and to me, of all people! I answered the letter the same day. I said I was much obliged to Edmund and Phyllis for their kind invitation, but I considered I was too old to stand sponsor to the baby, who should have some one likely to be of use to him through life. I did not suggest Mrs. Juke as a substitute; I did not even mention her, nor refer to my grievances; I wrote temperately and courteously, though not gushingly, and I fully expected that my note would bring forth another, urging me to reconsider the matter, and assuring me that I was not too old for anything--as of course I am not. Instead of this, they affected to be huffy, made no rejoinder, and took no further notice of me. So my feelings can be imagined when Lily calmly informed me that _she_ was to be the baby's godmother. I was keeping the child closely at home, engaged with her studies; I had put a stop to the Melbourne visits, because I do not believe in town life for a girl so young, and it was just as easy and very little more expensive to have her masters come out to give her lessons; therefore I could not imagine how she had been, as Harry would have said, "got at." "Oh, are you?" I ejaculated, dissembling my surprise, "and, pray, who says so?" "Father," she replied. "Ted spoke to father, and he said I might. And they want father to be godfather--Mr. Stephen Juke and either father or Harry--and Harry says his conscience is against something or other in the baptismal service--and so is Emily's--and that's why they chose me. And oh, mother, I must! I MUST!" She said it as if it were "I will," and with that mulish look which I knew of old, and which meant that she would fight to the death to get her own way, no matter whose feelings might be trampled on. I did not stay to argue with her, but flew down the garden to find Tom. He was pitchforking clean straw into the pigsties, and when he saw me, stood and leaned on the fork handle with an exaggerated air of resignation. "Well, and what's the matter now?" was expressed in his face and attitude, though he did not speak. "Tom," I demanded, as I paused before him--I will not deny that I was boiling over "Tom, are you going to be godfather to the Jukes' baby?" "I don't know, Polly," he said evasively. "Nothing is settled yet." "If you do," I declared with passion, "I will never speak to you again."