“You thought we’d got all we wanted!” said Olivia, ironically. “Why, we’ve got nothing at all—not even a chair to sit on. I think, if you have tea going at your cottage, you might ask us to come and have some.”

“Hey, that ye might, Sally,” said a gruff voice, which Olivia had now learnt to recognize as that of a friend.

Turning, she saw Mat Oldshaw, his blushes, if he were still blushing, invisible in the darkness, standing at the foot of the steps, mounting guard over the luggage, which he had piled together.

“Oh,” cried the girl, with a sudden change to melting gratitude, “you haven’t been waiting out here in the cold all this time for us, have you?”

“Weel, miss,” said Mat, laughing uneasily, and shifting from one heavy foot to the other, “t’ door was shut, an’ Ah couldn’t get in.”

And, to put an end to conversation, which was an art in which he felt he did not shine, the young fellow seized the two smallest trunks and carried them straight into the big farm living room, whistling a lively tune as he did so. Olivia stood back quite silently while he fetched in the rest of the luggage in the same way, and then stood looking at it dubiously by the light of Mrs. Wall’s candle.

[Pg 17]

[Pg 17]

“It bean’t naw good onfastenin’ t’ cords,” he said at last, “for they won’t stay in here. An’ Ah dunno reightly what to be doin’ for ye if yer goods bean’t coom.”

He went back again to the front door and looked out. Not that he could see anything of the road, for the huge barn opposite, completely blocked the view from this point. But he was a good deal affected by the predicament in which this beautiful lady and her attendant found themselves, and he was shy of meeting the lady’s eyes, being without means of comforting her. Suddenly a figure darted out from the gloom under the barn walls, a strong hand was laid upon the lad’s arm, and, willy-nilly, he was dragged down the steps and heartily cuffed before he had recovered from his first surprise.

“Eh, feyther, what art doin’ now?” he asked, as soon as he had recovered breath, having speedily recognized the touch of his parent’s loving hand.

“Eh, thou feaul, thoo teastrill; Ah’ve got tha! Ah know’d wheer thoo’d got to. This cooms o’ followin’ fowk wha can’t keep off t’ lasses. 

 Prev. P 20/280 next