e.

"Good morning, Mr. Hurd, sir!" she exclaimed, plucking at her apron.
"Won't you come inside, sir, and sit down? The parlour's let to Mr.
Macheson there, but he's out in the garden, and he won't mind your
stepping in for a moment. And how's your father, Mr. Hurd? Wonderful
well he was looking when I saw him last."

The young man followed her inside, but declined a chair.

"Oh! the governor's all right, Mrs. Foulton," he answered. "Never knew
him anything else. Good weather for the harvest, eh?"

"Beautiful, sir!" Mrs. Foulton answered.

"Were you wanting to speak to John, Mr. Stephen? He's about the home
meadow somewhere, or in the orchard. I can send a boy for him, or
perhaps you'd step out."

"It's you I came to see, Mrs. Foulton," the young man said, "and 'pon my
word, I don't like my errand much."

Mrs. Foulton was visibly anxious.

"There's no trouble like, I hope, sir?" she began.

"Oh! it's nothing serious," he declared reassuringly. "To tell you the
truth, it's about your lodger."

"About Mr. Macheson, sir!" the woman exclaimed.

"Yes! Do you know how long he was proposing to stay with you?"

"He's just took the rooms for another week, sir," she answered, "and a
nicer lodger, or one more quiet and regular in his habits, I never had
or wish to have. There's nothing against him, sir--surely?"

"Nothing personal--that I know of," Hurd answered, tapping his boots
with his riding-whip. "The fact of it is, he has offended Miss
Thorpe-Hatton, and she wants him out of the place."

"Well, I never did!" Mrs. Foulton exclaimed in amazement. "Him offend
Miss Thorpe-Hatton! So nice-spoken he is, too. I'm sure I can't imagine
his saying a wry word to anybody."

"He has come to Thorpe," Hurd explained, "on an errand of which Miss
Thorpe-Hatton disapproves, and she does not wish to have him in the
place. She knows that he is staying here, and she wishes you to send him
away at once."

Mrs. Foulton's face fell.

"Well, I'm fair sorry to hear this, sir," she declared. "It's only this
morning that he spoke for the rooms for another week, and I was glad and
willing enough to let them to him. Well I never did! It does sound all
anyhow, don't it, sir, to be telling him to pack up and go sudden-like!"

"I will speak to him myself, if you like, Mrs. Foulton," Stephen said.
"Of course, Miss Thorpe-Hatton does not wish you to lose anything, and I
am to pay you the rent of the rooms for the time he engaged them. I