312 THE FAT OF THE LAND 
where they made merry without seriously in- 
terrupting sleep in the main house. The others 
found comfortable quarters under our roof, ex- 
cept Sir Tom, who would go home some time in 
the night, to return before lunch the next day. 
With such a houseful of people, the cook was 
worked to the bone; but she gloried in it, and 
cackled harder than ever. I believe she gave 
warning twice during those ten days; but Polly 
has a way with her which Mary cannot resist. 
I do not think we could have driven that cook 
out of the house with a club when there was 
such an opportunity for her to distinguish her- 
self. Her warnings were simply matters of habit. 
The holidays were filled with such things as 
a congenial country house-party can furnish — 
the wholesomest, jolliest things in the world; 
and the end, when it came, was regretted by 
all. I grew to feel a little bit jealous of Jarvis’s 
attentions to Jane, for they looked serious, and 
she was not made unhappy by them. Jarvis 
was all that was honest and manly, but I could 
not think of giving up’ Jane, even to the best of 
fellows. I wanted her for my old age. I sus- 
pect that a loving father can dig deeper into the 
mud of selfishness than any other man, and yet 
feel all the time that he is doing God service. 
It is in accord with nature that a daughter 
should take the bit in her teeth and bolt away from 
this restraining selfishness, but the man who is left 
by the roadside cannot always see it in that light. 
