A good deal of personal intimacy is involved in such encounters, and by the time the panting Mackenzie was hauled away by the collar, and the furious Joss had been incarcerated in the dining-room, the new chauffeur and Miss Morven were no longer strangers. CHAPTER X AS HANDY MAN The chauffeur was informed that there were no orders for the car the following morning, as “Miss Parrett was suffering from neuralgia in her face,” and also--though this was not mentioned in the bulletin--a sharp pain in her temper. Aurea, an early visitor, radiating gaiety, was on this occasion unaccompanied by Mackenzie. Mackenzie, aged six years, was the village tyrant and dictator. He also had been accustomed to consider himself a dog of two houses--the Rectory and the Red Cottage; and when the Red Cottage had moved to the Manor, and installed an animal of low degree as its pet, he was naturally filled with wrath and resentment, and on two opportunities the intruder had narrowly escaped with many deep bites, and his life! Aurea found her Aunt Bella trotting about the premises and passages, with the knitted hood over her head, and key-basket in hand. “Not going out to-day!” she exclaimed; “but it’s lovely, Aunt Bella. The air is so deliciously soft--it would do you no end of good.” “My dear Aurea,” she piped, “I know you don’t allow any one in Ottinge to call their soul their own, and I must ask you to leave _me_ my body, and to be the best judge of my ailments--and state of health.” “Oh, I beg your pardon, Aunt Bella; I meant no harm. Well, then, if you are not going to use the car yourself, perhaps Susan and I could take it over to Westmere? The Woolcocks have a large house-party, and Joey and her husband are there.” Miss Parrett closed her eyes tightly--a sure hoisting of the storm cone--and screwed up her little old face till it resembled an over-ripe cream cheese. “_Really_, Aurea! I don’t know what the world is coming to! How dare you propose such a thing! Take out my car for the first time without _me_! But, of course, I know I’m only a cipher in my own house!”--an almost hourly complaint. “But do think of the chauffeur, Aunt Bella; is he to have nothing to do?” Here this crafty girl touched a sensitive nerve--a responsive key. “Plenty for him to do; there’s enough work in the house for twenty chauffeurs: unpacking the book boxes and china--never opened since your grandfather’s death--staining the floors, and putting up the curtains, and laying carpets. If you and Susan _are_ going to settle the drawing-room at last, he may help you. I can’t spare Jones or Hogben from the garden.” “Very well, we must have some one to lift the heavy things, and stand on ladders. Where is he?” “Outside in the hall, awaiting my orders,” replied Miss Parrett, with magnificent dignity, folding her hands over what had once been a neat waist, but now measured thirty inches.