He was an elderly man, as has been said, and there was no great appearance of refinement in his face, nor had the look of his vehicle and horse the assumption of any outward show or pride. But his features at any rate, if harsh and strong, had something in them to impress a gazer’s eyes; and he raised his hat with deferential courtesy, as Alice Robson came out into the porch. The slender girl in her neat, quiet working-dress was a figure not inharmonious with the flowers. ‘Good-day to ye, miss,’ cried the occupant of the dog-cart, in a voice like his face, harsh, strong, without refinement; ‘I’ve come to this place where I’ve never been before to ask for a boy and girl as lodges here. I don’t suppose _you’re_ the lady, though you’re standing in the porch, it’s not in my mind as I’ll have such luck as that!’ ‘I am afraid, sir,’ said Alice, after an instant of the confusion with which her modesty received an unexpected compliment, ‘as you’re askin’ after Mr Gillan an’ his sister, as have left us to-day to drive into the town. You’ll perhaps know the gentleman, sir, they’re going to see--he’s Mr Lee, at the top o’ Lindum Hill.’ ‘Why, _I’m_ Mr Lee,’ cried the stranger in an outburst, whose fit succession was the loud, rough laugh he gave; ‘an’ I’ve come over to see the girl and lad, without thinking as they would pay me honour first. Well, I’m not sorry, I want to hear about ’em, an’ I guess as I’ll do it now they are away; so I’ll send round my horse to the stables--I suppose there _are_ some stables--and just come in an’ hear what there is to tell--Ha, this is the hall, I suppose, and left unfurnished; in these hard times we can’t get chairs for our halls!’ Alice had stepped out to give directions to the man, so Mrs Robson in her turn came forward, not offended by these observations on her house, which she considered to be jests befitting ‘quality.’ Mrs Robson was a big woman, firm and solid, with every capacity ripe for self-defence, but she had old-fashioned ideas on social questions, which imparted to her conduct some inconsistency. At the present moment she was so far from indignation that she was only anxious to improve the occasion. ‘I’m sure, sir,’ she said, ‘an’ it’s right enough you are--these _be_ hard times, an’ we’re all on us sufferers--not as we haven’t money eno’ for chairs an’ tables, but we don’t take pleasure in such things as them. The sitting-room here it’s furnished smart enough, but the master’s not happy but by the kitchen fire--ye’ll be warm enough, sir, if ye please to step this way, for the air’s not hot, although it be summer-time. Or it’s happen ye’d like to see Miss Gillan’s room--we call it th’ owd kitchen, this room here, where she sits--Alice, take this gentleman to Miss Gillan’s room, being as he’s a relation or a friend of her’n.’