"I mean all fair and honorable," said Jonas. "I didn't say housekeeper, did I? I say wife. If any chap had said to me, Bideabout, you are putting your feet into a rabbit net, and will be caught, and--'" he made a sign as if knocking a rabbit's neck to kill it--"I say, had any one said that, I'd a' laughed at him as a fool." "You may laugh at him still," said the girl. "No one that I know has set any net for you." "You have," he sniggered. "Aye, and caught me." "I!" laughed Mehetabel contemptuously, "I spread a net for you? It is you who pursue and pester me. I never gave you a thought save how to make you keep at arm's length." "You say that to me." His color went. "It is ridiculous, it is insulting of you to speak to me of netting and catching. What do I want of you save to be let go my way." "Come, Mehetabel," said the Broom-Squire caressingly, "we won't quarrel about words. I didn't mean what you have put on me. I want you to come and be my wife. It isn't only that I've had a quarrel with my sister. There's more than that. There is something like a stoat at my heart, biting there, and I have no rest till you say--'I'll have you, Jonas!'" "The stoat must hang on. I can't say that." "Why not?" "I am not obliged to give a reason." "Will you not have me?" "No, Bideabout, I will not. How can I take an offer made in this way? When you ask me to enable you to be rude to your sister, when you speak of me as laying traps for you; and when you stay me on my road as if you were a footpad." Again she made an attempt to go in the direction of the hayfield. Her bosom was heaving with anger, her nostrils were quivering. Again he arrested her. "If you will not let me go," said she, "I will call for help. Here comes father. He shall protect me." "I'll have you yet," said the Broom-Squire with a sneer. "If it ain't you that nets me, then it'll be I net you, Mehetabel." CHAPTER X. INTO THE NET. "We must have cake and ale for the hayfield," said Mrs. Verstage. "Of ale there be plenty in the house, but for cake, I must bake. It ort to ha' been done afore. Fresh cakes goes twice as fast as stale, but blessin's on us, the weather have been that changeable I didn't know but I might put it off to anywhen." This was said on the morrow of the occurrence just described. Whilst Mrs. Verstage was engaged in the baking she had not time for much talk, but she asked abruptly: "What's that as to Bideabout? Father said he'd come on you and him, and you was both in a sort o' take on." Mehetabel had no reason for reticence, and she told the hostess of the suit of the Broom-Squire, and of the manner in which he made his proposal. Mrs. Verstage said nothing at the time. She was occupied--too occupied for comments. But when the cake was in the oven, she seated herself at the kitchen table, with a sigh of relief, and beckoned to Mehetabel to do the same.