"Matabel," she said, "I've been thinking about you. There's James Colpus and his daughter are in want of a woman. That girl, Julia Caesar, as has been with them, got at the barrels of ale, and has been givin' drink all round to the men, just when they liked. She'd got a key to the cellar unbeknown to Master Colpus; so she has had to walk off. Polly Colpus, she knows you well enough, and what a managing girl you are. They couldn't do better than take you--that is, if they can arrange with Bideabout, and don't object to the baby." Accordingly, somewhat later, Mehetabel departed for the farm of James Colpus, that adjoined the land occupied by old Simon Verstage. James Colpus was preparing to go out fox-hunting when Mehetabel arrived. He wore a tight, dark-colored suit, that made his red face look the redder, and his foxy hair the foxier. His daughter had a face like a full moon, flat and eminently livid;' fair, almost white eyebrows, and an unmistakable moustache. She was extraordinarily plain, but good-natured. She was pouring out currant brandy for her father when Mehetabel arrived. "Well!" exclaimed Colpus. "Here is the runaway wife. Tally-ho! Tally-ho! We've got her. All the parish has been out after you, and you run to earth here, do you?" "If you please," said Mehetabel, "I have come to offer my services in the place of Julia Caesar, who has been sent away. You know I can work. You know I won't let nobody have the tap o' the beer--and as for wages, I'll take what you are willing to give." "That's all very fine, Miss Runaway, but what will Bideabout say to that?" "I am not going back to Bideabout," answered Mehetabel. "If you cannot take me, I shall go to every farm and offer myself, and if none in Thursley or Witley will have me, I'll beg my bread from door to door, till I do find a house where I may honestly earn it. Go back to the Punch-Bowl I will not." "I'd like to take you," said Colpus. "Glad to have you. Never a better girl anywhere, of that I am quite certain--only, how about the Broom-Squire? I'm constable, and it must not be said that the constable is keeping a man's wife away from him." "You will not keep me from him. Nothing in the world will make me go back to him." "Then--what about the baby? Can you let Bideabout have that?" Mehetabel flushed almost as red as Colpus and his daughter. "Never!" she said, firmly. "But, look here," said the farmer, "if I did agree to take you, why, after a day or two, you'd be homesick, and wantin' to be back in the arms of Jonas. It's always so with women." "I shall never go back," persisted Mehetabel. "So you say. But before the week is out you'll be piping another song." "You may bind me to stay--three months--six--a year," "That is all very well to say. Bind me, but how? What bind will hold--when the marriage tie does not?"