James came in from the yard. 'You look killingly fine today, Marmoset,' he said cheerfully. 'I like that bonnet – is it your new go-calling hat?’ She gave her husband a pitying shake of the head. 'Really, now, you must know better than that! Does one go calling at this time of the morning? And you must have seen this bonnet fifty times at least, my James. Am I so poor a shab-rag that you cannot tell any longer what I wear?' ‘Au contraire, my wife, you are so very beautiful that it would be an insult to notice your clothes,' he said smartly. She put herself into his arms. 'Mon doux menteur,' she smiled. ‘It's no lie,' he said seriously, his blue eyes very dark as he looked down into her face. The strength of his emotion – the fact that small and plain and thin as she was, she was beautiful in his eyes – made her feel weak with gladness and gratitude. The pains and troubles of last year were behind them, and they were closer than ever before. God had been very good to her, she thought humbly, and she didn't at all deserve it.
