"Oh, money!" scoffed Sarah Rocliffe. "What fools men be, and set themselves up as wiser than all the world of women. You've had Iver Verstage here; you've invited him over to paint your Matabel; and here he has been, admiring her, saying soft things to her, and turnin' her head. Sometimes you've been present. Most times you've been away. And now you've sent her to the Ship, and you are off stag huntin'." Then with strident voice, the woman sang, and looked maliciously at her brother. "Oh, it blew a pleasant gale, As a frite under sail, Came a-bearing to the south along the strand. With her swelling canvas spread. But without an ounce of lead, And a signalling, alack t she was ill-manned." With a laugh, and a snap of her fingers in Bideabout's face, she repeated tauntingly:-- "And a-signalling, alack I she was ill-manned." Then she burst forth again:-- "She was named the Virgin Dove, With a lading, all of love. And she signalled, that for Venus (Venice) she was bound. But a pilot who could steer. She required, for sore her fear, Lest without one she should chance to run aground." "Be silent, you croaking raven," shouted the Broom-Squire. "If you think to mock me, you are wrong. I know well enough what I am about. As for that painting chap, he is gone--gone to Guildford." "How do you know that?" "Because the landlady said as much." "What--to you?" "Yes, to me." Mrs. Rocliffe laughed mockingly. "Oh, Bideabout," she said, "did not that open your eyes? What did Sanna Verstage mean when she asked you to allow your wife to go to the inn! What did she mean but this?" she mimicked the mistress, "'Please, Master Bideabout, may Matabel come to me for a day or two--that naughty boy of mine is away now. So don't be frightened. I know very well that if he were at the Ship you might hesitate to send Matabel there.'" Then in her own tones Sarah Rocliffe said. "That is the meaning of it. But I don't believe that he is gone." "Sanna Verstage don't tell lies." "If he were gone, Matabel would not be so keen to go there." "Matabel was not keen. She did not wish to go." "She did wish it; but she made a pretence before you that she did not." "Hold your slanderous tongue," shouted Jonas. "I'll not hear another word." "Then you must shut your ears to what all the parish is saying." Thereupon she told him what she had seen, with amplifications of her own. She was glad to have the opportunity of angering or wounding her brother; of sowing discord between him and his wife. When he parted from her, she cast after him the remark--"I believe he is still at the Ship."