elf. Of course you can command me as you please. But I think it
would be better so."

"Oh yes," she said wearily, "better so."

This was the only exchange of words between them till about four
o'clock; the phaeton, mounting the lane, "opened out" the cottage
between the leafy banks. Thin smoke went straight up from the chimney;
the flowers in the garden, the hawthorn in the lane, hung down their
heads in the heat; the stillness was broken only by the sound of hoofs.
For right before the gate a livery servant rode slowly up and down,
leading a saddle horse. And in this last Dick shuddered to identify his
father's chestnut.

Alas! poor Richard, what should this portend?

The servant, as in duty bound, dismounted and took the phaeton into his
keeping; yet Dick thought he touched his hat to him with something of a
grin. Esther, passive as ever, was helped out and crossed the garden
with a slow and mechanical gait; and Dick, following close behind her,
heard from within the cottage his father's voice upraised in an
anathema, and the shriller tones of the Admiral responding in the key of
war.

CHAPTER VIII

BATTLE ROYAL

Squire Naseby, on sitting down to lunch, had inquired for Dick, whom he
had not seen since the day before at dinner; and the servant answering
awkwardly that Master Richard had come back, but had gone out again with
the pony-phaeton, his suspicions became aroused, and he cross-questioned
the man until the whole was out. It appeared from this report that Dick
had been going about for nearly a month with a girl in the Vale--a Miss
Van Tromp; that she lived near Lord Trevanion's upper wood; that
recently Miss Van Tromp's papa had returned home from foreign parts
after a prolonged absence; that this papa was an old gentleman, very
chatty and free with his money in the public-house--whereupon Mr.
Naseby's face became encrimsoned; that the papa, furthermore, was said
to be an admiral--whereupon Mr. Naseby spat out a whistle brief and
fierce as an oath; that Master Dick seemed very friendly with the
papa--"God help him!" said Mr. Naseby; that last night Master Dick had
not come in, and to-day he had driven away in the phaeton with the young
lady.

"Young woman," corrected Mr. Naseby.

"Yes, sir," said the man, who had been unwilling enough to gossip from
the first, and was now cowed by the effect of his communications on the
master. "Young woman, sir!"

"Had they luggage?" demanded the Squire.