And immediately Letitia might be seen unbonneted, kneeling on the consecrated stone, and drinking the draught her husband had filled for her. Thus was she seen, as presently appeared. A voice reached them from one side, praying that her ladyship’s wishes might come to pass, be they what they might, as they must be for good and no harm to the people under her. Letitia sprang up, laughing, and her husband replaced her hat, calling to the well-wisher to show himself. He did so, not in the shape of a hardy labourer, with his farming or gardening tools on his shoulder; nor yet of a picturesque old man bending beneath his faggot. Such might better have beseemed the place: but this was a middle-aged, shrewd-looking little man, whom one would have guessed to be town-bred. He came forward, saying that he had a message for her ladyship from his wife;—my lord knew his wife. “Not I,” said his lordship. “I did not know you had a wife.” “May be not, my lord; but you know the woman. She that keeps the grocery shop, as you turn the corner in the village, your lordship remembers.” “What! Nanny Sweet? So you have taken her to wife since I saw you last.” “Yes, my lord. She has a very good business, or had before the equality folks set up a store against us. I don’t like equality, not I. But my wife sends word, my lady....” “You do not like equality!” interrupted Letitia. “If there was equality, you know, you would not need to mind who set up a store, and what came of your wife’s grocery business.—And do not you like this place too,—these woods, and the deer, and the lake?” White lauded the grandeur and beauty of Weston. “Well; this place would be as much yours as ours if there was equality. You might fish on the lake, and shoot in the preserves, and....” “And lie down to sleep in the sun here beside the well,” continued lord F——; “and all without asking anybody’s leave.” “I thank you kindly, my lord; but I like sleeping in my bed, if I sleep at all, unless it be dozing over my pipe, while Jack is reading the news at the Duke’s Head. The only time I went fishing, I fell into the water; so you’ll not soon find me in a boat again. My wife and I like a chicken now and then, on Sundays; so a share of your poultry-yard would be welcome perhaps; and, as for the deer and game, I leave it to other folks to get out of their warm beds for the sake of it. It would not answer to me to be laid by with the rheumatism for such a cause, you see.” “But there would be no poaching if there was equality,” said Letitia, laughing. “Cannot game be shot in the daytime?”