"So, so. Not millionaires, but all right--both of us, though I'm the snug man of the two. We got to Africa at the right moment, before 1867, you know, the year that O'Reilly saw a nigger-child playing with the first Kimberley diamond ever found. Up we went, the pair of us. Things have hummed since then, and claims and half-claims and quarter-claims are coming to be worth a Jew's eye. We're all right, anyway, and I've got a stake out there yet." "You 'm well pleased to come back to dear li'l Chagford after so many years of foreign paarts, I should think, Mr. Grimbal?" said Phoebe. "Ay, that I am. There's no place like Devon, in all the earth, and no spot like Chagford in Devon. I'm too hard grit to wink an eyelid at sight of the old scenes again myself; but Martin, when he caught first sight of great rolling Cosdon crowning the land--why, his eyes were wetted, if you'll believe it." "And you comed right off to fish the river fust thing," said Will admiringly. "Ay, couldn't help it. When I heard the water calling, it was more than my power to keep away. But you're cruel short of rain, seemingly, and of course the season 's nearly over." "I'll shaw you dark hovers, wheer braave feesh be lying yet," promised Will; and the angler thanked him, foretelling a great friendship. Yet his eyes rarely roamed from Phoebe, and anon, as all three proceeded, John Grimbal stopped at the gate of Monks Barton and held the girl in conversation awhile. But first he despatched Will homewards with a message for his mother. "Let Mrs. Blanchard know we'll feed at seven o'clock off the best that she can get," he said; "and tell her not to bother about the liquor. I'll see to that myself." CHAPTER II A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING