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boor he addressed, like the lash of a whip on the back of a snarling cur.

ā€œI know whatā€™s to be done, and I shall do it,ā€ Leach repeated in a louder tone; ā€œAnd all the sentimental rot ever talked in the village about the Five Sisters wonā€™t make me change my mind,ā€”no, nor all the sermons on meek and quiet spirits neither! Thatā€™s my last word, Mr. Walden, and you may take it for what it is worth!ā€

Walden swung round on his heel and went his way without replying. Outwardly, he was calm enough, but inwardly he was in a white heat of anger. His thoughts dwelt with a passionate insistence on the grand old trees with their great canopies of foliage, where hundreds of happy birds annually made their homes,ā€”where, with every recurring Spring, the tender young leaves sprouted forth from the aged gnarled boughs, expressing the joy of a life that had outlived whole generations of menā€”where, in the long heats of summer broad stretches of shade lay dense on the soft grass, offering grateful shelter from the noon-day sun to the browsing cattle,ā€”and where with the autumnā€™s breath, the slow and glorious transformation of green leaves to gold, with flecks of scarlet between, made a splendour of colour against the pale grey-blue sky, such as artists dream of and with difficulty realise. All this wealth of God-granted natural beauty,ā€”the growth of centuries,ā€”was to perish in a single morning! Surely it was a crime!ā€”surely it was a wicked and wanton deed, for which, there could be no sane excuse offered! Sorrowfully, and with bitterness, did Walden relate to his gardener, Bainton, the failure of his attempt to bring Oliver Leach to reason,ā€”solemnly, and in subdued silence did Bainton hear the tale.

ā€œWell, well, Passon,ā€ he said, when his master had finished; ā€œYou doos your best for us, and no man canā€™t say but what youā€™ve done it true ever since you took up with this ā€˜ere village,ā€”and youā€™ve tried to save the Five Sisters, and if ā€˜tainā€™t no use, why thereā€™s no more to be said. Josey Letherbarrow was for walkinā€™ up to the Manor anā€™ seeinā€™ Miss Vancourt herself, as soon as iver she gets within her own door,ā€”but Lord love ye, heā€™d take ā€˜arf a day to jog up there on such feet as heā€™s got left after long wear and tear, anā€™ there ainā€™t no liftinā€™ ā€˜im into a cart nohow. Sez he to me: ā€˜Iā€™ll see the little gel wot I used to know, and Iā€™ll tell ā€˜er as ā€˜ow the Five Sisters be chalked, anā€™ sheā€™ll listen to meā€”you see if she donā€™t!ā€™ I was rather took with the idee myself, but I sez, sez I: ā€˜Let alone, Josey,ā€”you be old as Methusaleh, and you canā€™t get up to the Manor nohow; let Passon try what he can do wiā€™ Leach,ā€™ā€”and now youā€™ve been and done your best, and canā€™t do nothinā€™, why we must give it up altogether.ā€

Walden walked up and down, Ms hands loosely clasped behind his back, lost in thought.

ā€œWe wonā€™t give it up altogether, Bainton,ā€ he said; ā€œWeā€™ll try and find some other wayā€”ā€

ā€œThereā€™s goinā€™ to be another way,ā€ declared Bainton, significantly; ā€œThereā€™s trouble brewinā€™ in the village, anā€™ mā€™appen when Oliver Leach gets up to the woods to-morrow morninā€™ heā€™ll find a few ready to meet ā€˜im!ā€

Walden stopped abruptly.

ā€œWhat do you mean?ā€

ā€œā€˜Tainā€™t for me to say;ā€ and Bainton pretended to be very busy in pulling up one or two plantains from the lawn; ā€œBut I tells ye true, Passon, the Five Sisters ainā€™t goinā€™ to be laid low without a shindy!ā€

Johnā€™s eyes sparkled. He scented battle, and was not by any means displeased.

ā€œThis is Tuesday, isnā€™t it?ā€ he asked abruptly; ā€œThis is the day Miss Vancourt has arranged to return?ā€

ā€œIt is so, sir,ā€ replied Bainton; ā€œand itā€™s believed the arrangements ā€˜olds goodā€”for changeā€™er mind as a woman will, ā€˜er ā€˜osses anā€™ groomā€™s arrivedā€”and a dog as large as they make ā€˜em, which ā€˜is name is Plato.ā€

Walden gave a slight gesture of annoyance. Here was a fresh cause of antipathy to the approaching Miss Vancourt. No one but a careless woman, devoid of all taste and good feeling, would name a dog after the greatest of Greek philosophers!

ā€œPlatoā€™s a good name,ā€ went on Bainton meditatively, unconscious of the view his master was taking of that name in his own mind; ā€œIā€™ve ā€˜eard it somewheres before, though I couldnā€™t tell just where. And itā€™s a fine dog. I was up at the Manor this morninā€™ lookinā€™ round the grounds, just to see ā€˜ow theyā€™d been a-gettinā€™ onā€”and really it isnā€™t so bad considerinā€™, and I was askinā€™ a question or two of Spruce, and he showed me the dog lyinā€™ on the steps of the Manor, lookinā€™ like a lionā€™s baby snoozinā€™ in the sun, and waitinā€™ as wise as ye like for his mistress. He donā€™t appear at all put out by new faces or new groundsā€”heā€™s took to the place quite natā€™ral.ā€

ā€œYou saw Spruce early, then?ā€

ā€œYes, sir, I see Spruce, and arter ā€˜ollerinā€™ ā€˜ard at ā€˜im for ā€˜bout ten minutes, he sez, sez he, as gentle as a child sez he: ā€˜Yes, the Five Sisters is a-cominā€™ down to-morrow morninā€™, and weā€™s all to be there a quarter afore six with ropes and axes.ā€™ā€

John started walking up and down again.

ā€œWhen is Miss Vancourt expected?ā€ he enquired.

ā€œAt tea-time this arternoon,ā€ replied Bainton. ā€œThe train arrives at Riversford at three oā€™clock, if so be it isnā€™t behind its time,ā€”and if the lady gets a fly from the station, which if she ainā€™t ordered it afore, mā€™appen she wonā€™t get it, sheā€™ll be ā€˜ere ā€˜bout four.ā€

Instinctively Walden glanced at his watch. It was just two oā€™clock. Another hour and the antipathetic ā€˜Squire-essā€™ would be actually on her way to the village! He heaved a short sigh. Forebodings of evil infected the air,ā€”impending change, disturbing and even disastrous to St. Rest suggested itself troublously to his mind. Arguing inwardly with himself, he presently began to think that notwithstanding all his attempts to live a Christian life, after the manner Christianly, he was surely becoming a very selfish and extremely narrow-minded man! He was unreasonably, illogically vexed at the return of the heiress of Abbotā€™s Manor; and why? Why, chiefly because he would no longer be able to walk at liberty in Abbotā€™s Manor gardens and woods,ā€”because there would be another personality perhaps more dominant than his own in the little village, and becauseā€”yes!ā€”because he had a particular aversion to women of fashion, such as Miss Vancourt undoubtedly must be, to judge from the brief exhibition of her wardrobe which, through the guilelessness of Mrs. Spruce, had been displayed before his reluctant eyes.

These objections were after all, so he told himself, really rooted in masculine selfishness,ā€”the absorbing selfishness of old bachelorhood, which had grown round him like a shell, shutting him out altogether from the soft influences of feminine attraction,ā€”so much so indeed that he had even come to look upon his domestic indoor servants as obliging machines rather than women,ā€”machines which it was necessary to keep well oiled with food and wages, but which could scarcely be considered as entering into his actual life more than the lawn-mower or the roasting-jack. Yet he was invariably kind to all his dependants,ā€”invariably thoughtful of all their needs,ā€”nevertheless he maintained a certain aloofness from them, not only because he was by nature reserved, but because he judged reserve necessary in order to uphold respect. In sickness or trouble, no one could be more quietly helpful or consolatory than he; and in the company of children he threw off all restraint and was as a child himself in the heartiness and spontaneity of his mirth and good humour,ā€”but with all women, save the very aged and matronly, he generally found himself at a loss, uncertain what to say to them, and equally uncertain as to how far he might accept or believe what they said to him. The dark eyes of a sparkling brunette embarrassed him as much as the dreamy blue orbs of a lily-like blonde,ā€”they were curious dazzlements that got into his way at times, and made him doubtful as to whether any positive sincerity ever could or ever would lurk behind such bewildering brief flashes of light which appeared to shine forth without meaning, and vanish again without result. And in various ways,ā€”he now began to think,ā€” he must certainly have grown inordinately, outrageously selfish!ā€” his irritation at the prospective return of Miss Vancourt proved it. He determined to brace himself together and put the lurking devil of egotism down.

ā€œPut it down!ā€ he said inwardly and with sternness,ā€”ā€œput it downā€” trample it under foot, John, my boy! The lady of the Manor is perhaps sent here to try your patience and prove the stuff that is in you! She is no child,ā€”she is twenty-seven years of ageā€”a full grown woman,ā€”she will have her ways, just as you have yours,ā€”she will probably rub every mental and moral hair on the skin of your soul awry,ā€”but that is really just what you want, John,ā€”you do indeed! You want something more irritating than Sir Morton Pippittā€™s senile snobberies to keep you clean of an overgrowth or an undergrowth of fads! Your powers of endurance are about to be put to the test, and you must come out strong, John! You must not allow yourself to become a querulous old fellow because you cannot always do exactly as you like!ā€

He smiled genially at his own mental scolding of himself, and addressing Bainton once more, said:

ā€œI shall probably write a note to Miss Vancourt this afternoon, and send you up with it. I shall tell her all about the Five Sisters, and ask her to give orders that the cutting down of the trees may be delayed till she has seen them for herself. But donā€™t say anything about this in the village,ā€ here he paused a moment, and then spoke with greater emphasisā€”ā€œI donā€™t want to interfere with anything anybody else may have on hand. Do you understand? We must save the old beeches somehow. I will do my best, but I may fail; Miss Vancourt may not read my letter, or if she does, she may not be disposed to attend to it; it is best that all ways and means should be, tried,ā€”ā€

He broke off,ā€”but his eyes met Baintonā€™s in a mutual flash of understanding.

ā€œYouā€™re a straight man, Passon, and no mistake,ā€ observed Bainton with a slow smile; ā€œNo beatinā€™ about the bush in the likes oā€™ you! Lord, Lord! What a mussy we ainā€™t saddled with a poor snuffling, addle-pated, whimperinā€™ man oā€™ God like we ā€˜ad afore you come ā€˜ereā€” what found all ā€˜is dooty anā€™ pleasure in dininā€™ with Sir Morton Pippitt up at the ā€˜All! And when there was a man died, or a baby born, or some other sich like calamity in the village, he wornā€™t never to ā€˜and to ā€˜elp,but he would give a look in when it was all over, and then he sez, sez he: ā€˜Iā€™m sorry, my man, I wasnā€™t ā€˜ere to comfort ye, but I was up at the ā€˜All.ā€™ And he did roll it round and round in his mouth like as ā€˜twas a lump oā€™ butter and ā€˜oney-ā€˜up at the ā€˜Allā€™! Hor-hor-hor! It must aā€™ tasted sweet to ā€˜im as we used to say,ā€”and takinā€™ into consideration that Sir Morton was a bone- melter by profession, we used to throw up the proverb ā€˜the nearer the bone, the sweeter the meatā€™ā€”not that it had any bearinā€™ on the matter, but a good sayinā€™s a good thing, and a proverb fits into a fancy sometimes betterā€™n a foot into a shoe. But you ainā€™t

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