not
be far from her. At this she smiled her own sweet smile, and touched
my forehead with her lips and wished that she could only learn how to
deserve such love as mine.

Tom Faggus took his good departure, which was a kind farewell to me,
on the very day I am speaking of, the day after his arrival. Tom was
a thoroughly upright man, according to his own standard; and you might
rely upon him always, up to a certain point I mean, to be there or
thereabouts. But sometimes things were too many for Tom, especially with
ardent spirits, and then he judged, perhaps too much, with only himself
for the jury. At any rate, I would trust him fully, for candour and
for honesty, in almost every case in which he himself could have no
interest. And so we got on very well together; and he thought me a fool;
and I tried my best not to think anything worse of him.

Scarcely was Tom clean out of sight, and Annie's tears not dry yet (for
she always made a point of crying upon his departure), when in came
Master Jeremy Stickles, splashed with mud from head to foot, and not in
the very best of humours, though happy to get back again.

"Curse those fellows!" he cried, with a stamp which sent the water
hissing from his boot upon the embers; "a pretty plight you may call
this, for His Majesty's Commissioner to return to his headquarters in!
Annie, my dear," for he was always very affable with Annie, "will you
help me off with my overalls, and then turn your pretty hand to the
gridiron? Not a blessed morsel have I touched for more than twenty-four
hours."

"Surely then you must be quite starving, sir," my sister replied with
the greatest zeal; for she did love a man with an appetite; "how glad I
am that the fire is clear!" But Lizzie, who happened to be there, said
with her peculiar smile,--

"Master Stickles must be used to it; for he never comes back without
telling us that."

"Hush!" cried Annie, quite shocked with her; "how would you like to
be used to it? Now, Betty, be quick with the things for me. Pork, or
mutton, or deer's meat, sir? We have some cured since the autumn."

"Oh, deer's meat, by all means," Jeremy Stickles answered; "I have
tasted none since I left you, though dreaming of it often. Well, this
is better than being chased over the moors for one's life, John. All the
way from Landacre Bridge, I have ridden a race for my precious life, at
the peril of my limbs and neck. Three great Doones galloping after me,
and a good j