"You're not going to make me vain? But I choose to be vain. I'll go away for the whole afternoon if I'm not made vain this instant. Ah! that's better. Do you know that you have the softest little curl on your soft little neck, and that your hair has caught the sun on it this morning?" Letty instinctively put up a hand to tuck away the curl. But he seized the hand. "Little vandal!--What have you been busy with?" "Oh! I have been over the house with Mrs. Matthews," said Letty, in another tone. "George, it's _dreadful_--the number of things that want doing. Do you know, _positively_, we could not put up more than two couples, if we tried ever so. And as for the state of the attics! Now do listen, George!" And, holding his hand tight in her eagerness, she went through a vehement catalogue of all that was wanted--new furniture, new decoration, new grates, a new hot-water system, the raising of the wings, and so on to the alteration of the stables and the replanning of the garden. She had no sooner begun upon her list than George's look of worry returned. He got up from the grass, and sat on the bench beside her. "Well, I'm sorry you dislike the place so much," he said, when her breath failed her, staring rather gloomily at his despised mansion. "Of course, it's quite true--it is an ugly hole. But the worst of it is, darling, I don't quite see how we're to do all this you talk about. I don't bring any good news from the pits, alas!" He turned quickly towards her. The thought flashed through his mind--could he be justly charged with having married her on false pretences as to his affairs? No! There had been no misrepresentation of his income or his risks. Everything had been plainly and honestly stated to her father, and therefore to her. For Letty knew all that she wanted to know, and had managed her family since she was a baby. Letty flushed at his last words. "Do you mean to say," she said with emphasis, "that those men are really going to strike?" "I am afraid so. We _must_ enforce a reduction, to avoid working at sheer loss, and the men vow they'll come out." "They want you to make them a present of the mines, I suppose!" said Letty, bitterly. "Why, the tales I hear of their extravagance and laziness! Mrs. Matthews says they'll have none but the best cuts of meat, that they all of them have an harmonium or a piano in the house, that their houses are _stuffed_ with furniture--and the amount of money they spend in betting on their dogs and their football matches is perfectly sickening. And now, I suppose they'll ruin themselves and us, rather than allow you to make a decent profit!" "That's about it," said George, flinging himself back on the bench. "That's about it."