John Herring left Mirelle, and did as she desired. He found Mr. Trampleasure at home, as she had said. He was engaged with his son in the dining-room on some plans, and they had a bottle of spirits and a jug of hot water on the table at their elbows, though the time was early in the afternoon. Old Tramplara greeted Herring with effusion, the young one sulkily. Herring told the father that the Countess wanted to speak to him in the summer-house for a few moments, if he would oblige her with his presence. ’See what comes of having a live Countess in the house,’ said the old man, laughing; ’I have to dance after her. Now, if she had been plain missie, she would have come here to see me.’ Then he accompanied Herring to the summer-house. This house was, in fact, a room of fair size, furnished with a fireplace and carved mantelpiece, that contained a quaint old painting on panel. The windows were large, and that to the south-east overhung the precipice, and commanded a magnificent view down the valley of the Tamar and up that of the Lyd to the range of Dartmoor, which rose as a wall against the horizon, broken into many rocky peaks, a veritable mountain chain. Mirelle had a chair and table in this window, and was engaged on the manufacture of tinsel flowers for the chapel at Trecarrel. The table was covered with scraps of foil and bits of coloured silks; and the snippings strewed the floor. ’Well, Serene Highness de Candlestickio!’ exclaimed the old man, noisily, as he came in, with a burst of laughter; ’what does your consequentialness desire? Some wires to stick them gewgaws on?’ Mirelle shrank before the uproarious old man, and spoke in her coldest and most reserved manner. ’I have sent for you, Mr. Trampleasure, about my money which has been intrusted to you. Mr. Herring has been advising me how to dispose of it.’ ’Oh, indeed; very good of Mr. Lieutenant Herring.’ ’I do not myself understand these matters, and so I have requested Mr. Herring to explain my wishes to you. It seems that Mr. Battishill is in trouble, and owes you money!’ ’That is true as gospel,’ said Tramplara; ’he owes me an imperial bushel of it. There are some persons who have a liking for borrowing, and much prefer that to paying. Mr. Battishill is one of these, and I have been his victim. And although David does say, "Blessed is he that borroweth and payeth not again," yet that is one point on which David and Sampson Trampleasure are at issue.’ ’Mr. Battishill is prepared to pay regularly the interest on the loans he has contracted,’ said Herring. ’But, my dear lieutenant,’ said Tramplara, ’I happen at this moment to be in immediate want of a very large sum of ready money. I call on Battishill to refund what he has borrowed. He can’t do it, and I sell up.’ ’You are very hard. Are you aware that he has had a seizure, and is ill?’