th, roughly; not that he was angry with the man, but
that his very skin was full of wrath, and it must exude.

Mr. Leicester did not relish the tone, and replied, bluntly and sulkily,
"Pike for our Papists."

The answer, though rude, did not altogether displease Griffith; it
smacked of _odium theologicum_, a sentiment he was learning to
understand. "Put 'em down, and listen to me, Thomas Leicester," said he.

And his manner was now so impressive that Leicester put down the bucket
with ludicrous expedition, and gaped at him.

"Now, my man, why do I keep you here?"

"To take care of your game, Squire, I do suppose."

"What? when you are the worst gamekeeper in the county. How many
poachers do you catch in the year? They have only to set one of their
gang to treat you at the public-house on a moonshiny night, and the rest
can have all my pheasants at roost while you are boosing and singing."

"Like my betters in the parlor," muttered Tom.

"But that is not all," continued Gaunt, pretending not to hear him. "You
wire my rabbits, and sell them in the town. Don't go to deny it; for
I've half a dozen to prove it." Mr. Leicester looked very uncomfortable.
His master continued: "I have known it this ten months, yet you are none
the worse for 't. Now, why do I keep you here, that any other gentleman
in my place would send to Carlisle jail on a justice's warrant?"

Mr. Leicester, who had thought his master blind, and was so suddenly
undeceived, hung his head and snivelled out, "'T is because you have a
good heart, Squire, and would not ruin a poor fellow for an odd rabbit
or two."

"Stuff and nonsense!" cried Gaunt. "Speak your mind, for once, or else
begone for a liar as well as a knave."

Thus appealed to, Leicester's gypsy eyes roved to and fro as if he were
looking for some loophole to escape by; but at last he faced the
situation. He said, with a touch of genuine feeling, "D--n the
rabbits! I wish my hand had withered ere I touched one on them." But
after this preface he sunk his voice to a whisper, and said, "I see what
you are driving at, Squire; and since there is nobody with us" (he took
off his cap,) "why, sir, 't is this here mole I am in debt to, no
doubt."

Then the gentleman and his servant looked one another silently in the
face, and what with their standing in the same attitude and being both
excited and earnest, the truth must be owned, a certain family likeness
came out. Certainly their eyes were qu