ark thought it had gone far enough. He took up the heavy bird, which
made some maudlin objections, and carried it gingerly to the fence.
'Here's the victim, Mr. Humpage,' he said lightly. 'I think it will be
itself again in a couple of hours or so. And now, perhaps, we can let
the matter drop for the present.'

The old gentleman glared at Mark as he received his bird: 'I don't
know who you may be, young sir, or what share you've had in this
disgraceful business. If I trace it to you, you shall repent of it, I
promise you! I don't wish to have any further communication with you
or your friend, who's old enough to know his duty better as a
neighbour and a Christian. You will let him know, with my compliments,
that he'll hear more of this.'

He retired with the outraged bird under his arm, leaving Uncle
Solomon, who had of course heard his parting words, looking rather
ruefully at his nephew.

'It's all very well for you to laugh,' he said to Mark, as they turned
to go into the house again; 'but let me tell you if that hot-tempered
old idiot goes and brings all this up at Petty Sessions, it may be an
awkward affair for me. He's been a lawyer, has 'Umpage, and he'll do
his worst. A pretty thing to 'ave my name in all the papers about 'ere
as torturing a goose! I dessay they'll try and make out that I poured
the whisky down the brute's throat. It's Wilcox's doings, and none of
mine; but they'll put it all on me. I'll drive over to Green &
Ferret's to-morrow, and see how I stand. You've studied the law. What
do _you_ think about it, come? Can he touch me, eh? But he hasn't got
a leg to stand on, like his gander--it's all nonsense, _ain't_ it?'

If there had ever been a chance, Mark thought bitterly, after
comforting his uncle as well as his very moderate acquaintance with
the law permitted, of anything like intimacy between himself and the
girl whose face had fascinated him so strangely, it was gone now: that
bird of evil omen had baulked his hopes as effectually as its
ancestors frustrated the aspiring Gaul.

The dusk was drawing on as they walked across the lawn, from which the
russet glow of the sunset had almost faded; the commonplace villa
before them was tinted with violet, and in the west the hedges and
trees formed an intricate silhouette against a background of ruddy
gold and pale lemon; one or two flamingo-coloured clouds still floated
languidly higher up in a greenish blue sky; over everything the peace
and c