So it fell out, and Hartley, quite to his satisfaction, escorted Mrs. Stanbury to ’Meavy Cot.’ First he chattered about his own hopes and disappointments; then he interested himself in his companion’s affairs. "Yes, I must be gone. No good staying here in sight of that girl--only makes me savage and good for nothing." "A pity she won’t take you; but she’ll never take anybody. She’s cut out for the single state," declared Constance. "How can you say that? Was ever a finer woman seen in Sheepstor?" "Womanhood’s a matter of heart, not body, my dear. To the eye she’s female, to the mind she’s male--that, or neither one nor t’other. I know all about her through my daughter. Not that I don’t wish with all my heart you could have her, and take her long ways off. Not a word of unkindness do I mean; but ’twould be better every way, and better for Madge if she lived somewhere else." "Yes--I understand that," he said. "David never can be everything to Madge while he thinks such a deuce of a lot of Rhoda. They’re all good friends, however." "Good friends enough. But ’tisn’t the home it might be. You don’t see, and strangers don’t see; but I see, because my mother’s eyes can’t be blinded." "I see too--I know very well what you mean." "If you do, then say nought," she answered; "for ’tisn’t for you--nor me neither--to stand between a man and his wife. D’you know what Madge said to me last week? I grant she was down when she said it; but she’s down too often now. She said, ’Life was sunshine with only a little cloud three year agone; now it’s cloud with only a little sunshine, mother.’ Not a very nice thing for me to hear. But it didn’t astonish me. We’re an unlucky race, I must tell you. Whether luck comes through the blood, or through some dark powers outside us, I don’t know yet; ’tis a very real thing, and some has it from the cradle and some never gets a pinch of it. Stanburys don’t." But Crocker was thinking of Margaret Bowden. "I’m terrible sorry to hear you tell this about her. She keeps such a stiff upper lip before the world and looks out with such cheerful eyes, that I never guessed ’twas quite as bad. Yet now you say it, I mind the signs." "Keep out of it, however, and go away. You can’t do no good if Rhoda won’t have you." "Don’t be sure of that. I was a lot of use once. I might again." Mrs. Stanbury was mildly surprised. "Seeing David’s good sense and patience, I won’t say ’tis impossible to do anything. But David be David, and even if he had the will to alter, how can he do it, more’n the leopard his spots? There’s nothing you can put your hand upon and say ’there’s the evil’; and yet ’tis clear enough. They’ve drifted apart through having no family. ’Tis all said in that word." Mr. Crocker sighed and felt a moment of real sorrow. "If she’d married me," he said, "’twould have saved us both a lot of bother." The other did not answer and they proceeded some distance silently.