‘Mr Beecham will himself tell you before the week is out that he gave me such proofs of his friendship as would have satisfied even you.’ ‘Well, well, we shall say no more, child, till the time comes; but never expect goodman Dick to be patient with what he thinks unreasonable. See what a handle this rogue Wrentham—I always felt that he was a rogue—has made of thy name to help him in cheating and bamboozling Philip! Take my word, we may turn our toes barely an inch from the straight path at starting, but we’ll find ourselves miles from it ere the end if we do not make a quick halt and go back.’ ‘I have only held my tongue,’ said the girl quietly enough, but the feeling of offended innocence was there. ‘Holding the tongue when one should speak out is as bad as telling a book of lies—worse, for we don’t know how to deal with it.’ ‘I should be less sorry for vexing you, aunt,’ said the niece, ‘if I did not know that by-and-by you will be sorry for having been vexed with me.’ ‘So be it.—But now let us finish clearing up the room, and we’ll get the bedstead down in the morning. Dr Joy says that Mr Hadleigh is not nearly so much hurt as was thought at first, and that they may be able to move him in a day or two.’ When the arrangements for turning the sitting-room into a bedroom had been completed—and there were nice details to be attended to in the operation, which the dame would intrust to no other hands than her own and her niece’s—Madge went in search of Pansy. Her sudden appearance in the kitchen interrupted the boisterous mirth which was going forward. When she inquired for Pansy Culver, there was an abashed look on the faces of those who had permitted the girl to go without inquiring whither; but Jenny Wodrow answered saucily: ‘She got into a state when I was talking about Caleb Kersey, and slipped out before any of us could say Jack Robinson.’ The silent reproof in the expression of Madge’s tender eyes had its effect even on this self-assertive damsel. Jerry Mogridge hobbled up to his young mistress. ‘I’ll find her for you, Missy,’ he said cheerily, for he was in the happy state of mind of one who has enjoyed a good meal and knows that there is a good sleep lying between him and the next day’s toil. They went out to the yard, and Jerry, opening the door of the dairy, thrust his head into the darkness with the invocation: ‘Come out ov here, Pansy Culver; what are you doing there? Missy wants you.’ There was no answer, and after groping his way amidst cans and pails standing ready for the morning’s milk, he returned muttering: ‘She ain’t there anyhow. I’ll get the lantern, Missy, and we’ll soon find her, so being as she ha’n’t gone to her father’s.’