lock gates should have been
constant from minute to minute, but the roar of it was not constant,
nor the pitch of its note, which fell when Lawrence stood erect, but
rose to a shrill overtone when he bent his head: sometimes one would
have thought the river was going down in spate, and then the volume
of sound dwindled to a mere thread, a lisp in the air. Lawrence was
observing these phenomena with a mind vacant of thought when he heard
footsteps brushing through the grass by the field path from the
village. Val had come, then, after all!

Val had naturally no idea that any one was near him. He had
reached the gate and was preparing to vault it when out of the
dense alder-shadow a hand seized his arm. "So sorry if I
startled you." But Val was not visibly startled. "Mrs. Clowes
sent me, down to let you in."

"Did she? Very good of her, and of you," returned Val's voice,
pleasant and friendly. "She always expects me to walk into the
river. But, after all, I shouldn't be drowned if I did. Is
Clowes gone to bed?"

"He's on his way there. Did you want to see him?"

"I'll look in for five minutes after Barry has tucked him up.
Have you been introduced to Barry yet? He's quite a character."

"So I should imagine. He came in to cart Bernard off, and did
something clumsy, or Bernard said he did, and Bernard cuffed his
head for him. Barry didn't seem to mind much. Why does he stay?
Is it devotion?"

"He stays because your cousin pays him twice what he would get
anywhere else. No, I shouldn't call Barry devoted. But he does
his work well, and it isn't anybody's job."

"I believe you," Lawrence muttered.

"Warm tonight, isn't it? No, thanks, I won't have anything to
drink-- I've only just finished supper. By the by, let me
apologize for my absence this afternoon. I was most awfully
sorry to miss you, but I never got away from Countisford till
after half past five, and my mare cast a shoe on the way back.
Then I tried to get her shod in Liddiard St. Agnes, which is one
of those idyllic villages that people write books about, and
there I found an Odd-fellows' fete in full swing. The village
blacksmith was altogether too harmonious for business, so not
being able to cuff his head, like your cousin, I was obliged to
walk home.

"Really'? Have a cigar if you won't have anything else." Val
accepted one, and in default of a match Lawrence made him light
it from his own. He was entirely at his ease, t