“Not to my knowledge,” she said. “He’s not one to do anything he’ll regret. He’s thinking of damages against Mr. Kellock, and I believe his lawyer’s of the same mind.” “Is he going to leave here?” “When he’s suited. Not sooner, I think.” “Knox is after his house, I hear, and has got the first refusal for it,” said Tom Dolbear. “There’s a man in a hundred—Knox, I mean. That’s what I call a philosopher sort of man—looks ahead and sees the future’s only an echo of the past. So nothing he hears surprises him. We are very much alike in our opinions. What he wants with a house I don’t know, however. He may think to marry again, which would account for it.” “I should hope Mr. Dingle would be gone pretty soon,” said Kellock. “It’s a bit callous him stopping, I think, things being as they are. It would be better for all parties if he went off in a dignified way, before the decree is pronounced.” “I dare say he thought it was a bit callous when you bolted with his wife,” answered Mrs. Dolbear. “Least said soonest mended, if you ask me, young man.” Whereupon Medora, who was nursing the new baby, hated it suddenly and handed it back to its mother. “If you’re going to talk like that, Aunt Polly,” she said, “it wasn’t much good us coming.” “Yes, it was,” returned Mrs. Dolbear, “if only to hear sense. You must be large-minded, or else you’re lost, and instead of quarrelling with everybody who thinks you’ve done wrong, which will take you all your time, Medora, better be sensible and sing small and tread on nobody’s corns more than you can help. We’ve forgiven you for your dear mother’s sake, and when you’re married to Mr. Kellock, you will be welcome here and treated without any thought of the past. And so will he; and if that isn’t Christianity made alive, I should like to know what is.” Mrs. Dolbear was so pleased with her own charity that neither Medora nor Jordan had the heart to argue about it. Indeed argument would have been wasted on Mary’s intelligence. She made Medora nurse the new baby again, and consideration of the infant occupied her. “After your mother she has been called,” said Mrs. Dolbear, “and her name’s the brightest thing about her so far. She’s healthy and seems to have a live and let live sort of nature.” “She’s got lovely blue eyes,” said Medora. “They’ll fade, however,” explained her aunt. “Most of my children have blue eyes to start with, but it ain’t a fast colour and can’t stand the light. If you look at my husband’s eyes, you’ll see they be a very pale, washed-out blue; and the children mostly take after him.” Lydia, her daughter and Mr. Kellock presently went for a walk before supper. As a treat, Billy, Milly, Clara and Jenny Dolbear accompanied them, and Tom himself started with the party. But he disappeared at the “Man and Gun,” and they proceeded alone to the churchyard, that Lydia might put some flowers on a new-made grave.