e heard the click of a latch, and, turning sharply,
he saw that the schoolmaster was leisurely walking his garden some fifty
yards away. He was not watching the visitor--nothing of the kind; but
the flowers in the little bed required looking to, and he remained there
picking off withered leaves with his new gloves, and making himself very
busy, in spite of a reminder from his mother that dinner was getting
cold; and it was not until he had seen the stranger stride away that he
entered his own place and sat thoughtfully down.

"If she thinks I am going to be thrown over like this," said Archibald
Graves to himself, "she is mistaken. She shall give way, and she shall
leave this wretched place, or I'll know the reason why. I wonder who
that round-faced fellow was, and where I can get something to eat? By
Jove, though, how she has altered! she quite touches a fellow like.
Here, boy, where's the principal inn?"

"Say?"

"Where's the principal inn?" cried the visitor again, as the boy
addressed stared at him wonderingly, his London speech being somewhat
incomprehensible to juveniles at Plumton All Saints.

"Dunno."

"Where can I get something to eat, then?" said the visitor, feeling half
amused, his difficulty with Hazel passing rapidly away.

"Somut to ee-yut. Why don't yer go ho-um?"

"Hang the boy! Oh, here's the round-faced chap. I beg your pardon, can
you direct me to the best hotel?"

"Straight past the church, sir, and round into the market-place."

"Thanks; I can get some lunch or dinner there, I suppose?"

"Ye-es," said Mr William Forth Burge. "I should think so."

"I came down from town by the mail last night, and walked over from
Burtwick this morning. Strange in the place, you see."

"May I offer you a bit of dinner, sir? I know London well, though I'm a
native here, and as a friend of our new schoolmistress--"

"Oh, I should hardly like to intrude," cried the young man
apologetically.

"Pray come," said the ex-butcher eagerly, for he longed to get the young
man under his roof. He did not know why: in fact he felt almost hurt at
his coming there that morning; and again, he did not know why, but he
knew one thing, and that was that he would have given ten pounds that
moment to know why Archibald Graves had come down that day, and what he
said to Miss Thorne, and--yes, he would have given twenty pounds to know
what Hazel Thorne said to him.

The result was, that he carried off the strang