the territorial
landlords.

One of the two sitters was a young lady in white muslin, who listened
somewhat impatiently to the remarks of her companion, an elderly,
rubicund personage, whom the merest stranger could have pronounced to be
her father. The watcher evinced no signs of moving, and it became
evident that affairs were not so simple as they first had seemed. The
tall farmer was in fact no accidental spectator, and he stood by
premeditation close to the trunk of a tree, so that had any traveller
passed along the road without the park gate, or even round the lawn to
the door, that person would scarce have noticed the other,
notwithstanding that the gate was quite near at hand, and the park little
larger than a paddock. There was still light enough in the western
heaven to brighten faintly one side of the man's face, and to show
against the trunk of the tree behind the admirable cut of his profile;
also to reveal that the front of the manor-house, small though it seemed,
was solidly built of stone in that never-to-be-surpassed style for the
English country residence--the mullioned and transomed Elizabethan.

The lawn, although neglected, was still as level as a bowling-green--which
indeed it might once have served for; and the blades of grass before the
window were raked by the candle-shine, which stretched over them so far
as to touch the yeoman's face in front.

Within the dining-room there were also, with one of the twain, the same
signs of a hidden purpose that marked the farmer. The young lady's mind
was straying as clearly into the shadows as that of the loiterer was
fixed upon the room--nay, it could be said that she was quite conscious
of his presence outside. Impatience caused her foot to beat silently on
the carpet, and she more than once rose to leave the table. This
proceeding was checked by her father, who would put his hand upon her
shoulder and unceremoniously press her down into her chair, till he
should have concluded his observations. Her replies were brief enough,
and there was factitiousness in her smiles of assent to his views. A
small iron casement between two of the mullions was open, and some
occasional words of the dialogue were audible without.

'As for drains--how can I put in drains? The pipes don't cost much,
that's true; but the labour in sinking the trenches is ruination. And
then the gates--they should be hung to stone posts, otherwise there's no
keeping them up throug