quietly--had so light a foot--and always a pleasant voice and smile.
Oh yes, she had been a great catch--an astonishing catch--no doubt
of that. All the same he was not going to be entirely governed by
her! And again he thought complacently of the weak places in her
scholarship--the very limited extent of her reading--compared to
his. 'By Zeus!--[Greek: ei pot' estin]--if it weren't for that, I
should never keep the whip-hand of her at all!'

She had made a forlorn attempt again, that morning, to dissuade him
from the park adventure. But there he drew the line. For there
really was a line, though he admitted it might be difficult to see,
considering all that he was shovelling upon her. He had been very
short--perhaps she would say, very rude--with her. Well, it couldn't
be helped! When she saw what he was really prepared to face, she
would at least respect him. And if he was shut up, she could get on
with the catalogue, and keep things going.

Altogether the Squire was above himself. The tonic air and scents
of the autumn, the crisp leaves underfoot, the slight frost on the
ruts, helped his general intoxication. He, the supposed scholar and
recluse, was about to play a part--a rattling part. The eye of
England would be upon him! He already tasted the prison fare, and
found it quite tolerable.

As to Desmond--

But the thought of him no sooner crossed the Squire's mind than he
dismissed it. Or rather it survived far within, as a volcanic force,
from which the outer froth and ferment drew half its strength. He
was being forcibly dispossessed of Desmond, just as he was being
forcibly dispossessed of his farms and his park; or of his money,
swallowed up in monstrous income tax.

Ah, there were Dodge and Perley, the two park-keepers, one of whom
lived in the White Lodge, now only a hundred yards away. Another man
who was standing by them, near the park wall, looked to the Squire
like Gregson, his ejected farmer. And who was that black-coated
fellow coming through the small wicket-gate beside the big one? What
the devil was he doing in the park? There was a permanent grievance
in the Squire's mind against the various rights-of-way through his
estate. Why shouldn't he be at liberty to shut out that man if he
wanted to? Of course by the mere locking and barricading of the
gates, as they would be locked and barricaded on the morrow, he was
flouting the law. But that was a trifle. The _gates_ were his own
anyway.

The bl