"Won't say anything about it," cried Mrs Portlock, as the sturdy red-faced servant-maid entered to pour a half-scuttle of coals on the roaring fire. "If you want to talk about it--" Mrs Portlock here began to work viciously with a piece of nutmeg, the eggs being considered enough beaten. "I should be sorry to hurt your feelings about this matter, Mrs Portlock," continued Luke; "but I have always thought you looked upon Sage and me as being as good as engaged." "Oh, I don't know! I can't say! There, I won't say anything about it. Oh! here's Master, and you must talk to him." Luke Ross's face wore a particularly troubled look, as a hearty, bluff voice was just then heard bidding a dog lie down, and, directly after, the kitchen door was thrown open, and the broad-shouldered bluff Churchwarden, in his loose brown velveteen coat and cord breeches with leather leggings, entered the room. His clear blue eyes and crisp grey hair made him look the very embodiment of health, and his face lit up with a pleasant smile as he strode in with a double gun under his arm, while his pockets had a peculiarly bulgy appearance at the sides. "Ah, Luke, my lad! how are you?" he said, bluffly, as he held out his hand. "Glad to see you, my boy. Why, you ought to have been out with me for a run. Thy face looks as pasty as owt." "I should have liked the walk immensely," said Luke, brightening up at the warmth of his reception, and he wrung the others hand. "Schoolmastering don't improve thy looks, Luke, my lad," continued the Churchwarden. "Why, you are as pale as if you had been bled. Hang that London! I don't care if I never see it again." "There's worse places than London, Joseph," said Mrs Portlock, who had a weakness for an occasional metropolitan trip. "Tell me where they are, then," said the Churchwarden, "for I don't know 'em. Got two hares," he said, standing the gun in the corner by the dresser. "Ah! we wanted a hare," said Mrs Portlock, busying herself over the work her niece had left undone. "There you are, then," said the Churchwarden, drawing them, one at a time, from the inner pockets of his shooting-coat. "But is that gun loaded, Joseph?" cried Mrs Portlock, who had been to the dresser and started away. "Yes, both barrels," said the Churchwarden, with a comical look at the visitor. "I wouldn't touch her if I were you." "I touch the horrid thing?" cried Mrs Portlock. "There, for goodness' sake unload it, Joseph, before we have some accident." "All right," said the Churchwarden, tossing the hares out into the stone passage at the back, and taking up the gun just as Mrs Portlock had raised the great white basin of well-beaten egg to pour into a flour crater which she had prepared. Stepping to the window, the head of the house turned the fastening quietly, and opened the casement sufficiently wide to allow of the protrusion of the barrels of the gun, when-- _Banff! Banff_! _Crash_!