MILES. Take my word for it, George, Ox Lease will have to smarten up a bit for this young lady. I know the circles she has been moving in, and ’tis to the best of everything that she has been used. GEORGE. [_Rising_.] That’s what mistress do say. And that’s why I be sent along down to Brook with haymaking going on and all. Spring chicken with sparrow grass be the right feeding for such as they. So mistress do count. MILES. Stop a moment, George. You have perhaps heard the letters from Miss Clara discussed in the family from time to time. GEORGE. Miss Clara did never send but two letters home in all the while she was gone. The first of them did tell as how th’ old lady was dead and had left all of her fortune to Miss Clara. And the second was to say as how her was coming back to the farm this morning. LUKE. And hark you here, George, was naught mentioned about Miss Clara’s fine suitors in neither of them letters? GEORGE. That I cannot say, Master Jenner. MILES. Nothing of their swarming thick around her up in London, George? GEORGE. They may be swarming by the thousand for aught as I do know. They smells gold as honey bees do smell the blossom. Us’ll have a good few of them a-buzzing round the farm afore we’re many hours older, so I counts. MILES. Well, George, that’ll liven up the place a bit, I don’t doubt. LUKE. ’Tis a bit of quiet and no livening as Ox Lease do want. Isn’t that so, George, my lad? GEORGE. [_Preparing to set off_.] I’ll say good morning to you, masters. I count I’ve been and wasted a smartish time already on the road. We be a bit hard pressed up at the farm this day. MILES. But George, my man, we have a good many questions to ask of you before you set off. GEORGE. Them questions will have to bide till another time, I reckon. I’m got late already, master. [_He hurries off_. MILES. Arriving by the morning coach! I shall certainly make my call to the farm before sunset. What do you say, Jenner? LUKE. You’re a rich man, Miles, and I am poor. But we have always been friends. MILES. And our fathers before us, Luke. LUKE. And the courting of the same maid shall not come between us. MILES. [_Slowly_.] That’ll be all right, Luke. LUKE. What I do say is, let’s start fair. Neck to neck, like. MILES. As you please, my good Luke. LUKE. Then, do you tell me honest, shall I do in the clothes I’m a-wearing of now, Miles? MILES. [_Regarding him critically_.] That neckerchief is not quite the thing, Luke. LUKE. ’Tis my Sunday best. MILES. Step over to the High Street with me, my lad. I’ve got something in the shop that will be the very thing. You shall have it half price for ’tis only a bit damaged in one of the corners. LUKE. I’m sure I’m very much obliged to you, Miles. MILES. That’s all right, Luke. LUKE. George would look better to my thinking if there was a new coat to the back of him. MILES. Ah, poor beggar, he would, and no mistake.