As the lord saw this, he was very urgent indeed that all this disreputable masquerading should come to an end. Whereupon Martha called out to my lord, “Sir, I’ll not have thee for my master.” And Nancy added her objection too. “So please thee, good man, thou canst not force the girls to serve,” said Plunket, at whom the old lord stared. However, he could not stare long, for all the servant girls about, hearing Martha refuse the old gentleman’s service, pressed about him, each playing her own little trumpet at the top of her voice. And, to be short, the old young lord thought himself perfectly justified in running away. Lady Henrietta was Lady Henrietta, but that was no reason why his lordship should be worried dead, so he thought he had better go; and did. “Nancy, Nancy, they are looking at us.” True, indeed, spoke Martha; Lionel and Plunket _were_ looking at “us,” and in the act of questioning each other touching “us.” And it was at this precise moment that Nancy told Lady Henrietta she was trembling, and Lady Henrietta told Nancy that she suffered also from the same cause. The chronicles do not state which of the quartette spoke first, while on the other hand the author was not present at the interview. But let it be admitted that Plunket spoke first, and said--“Hem--do ye seek a service, maidens--will ye bargain with us?” “A capital bargain,” said the other farmer. “Well,” said Lady Henrietta. “Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha,” said Nancy, who, being a lady’s-maid, was infinitely scornful at the idea of being a farmer’s servant. “Oh,” said stout Plunket to the latter, “I love laughter--work is better done by far when servants all gay-hearted are.” The “maidens” were still doubtful, so the farmer Plunket set to work to show the “place” was not an every-day place--and--and the upshot of it all was that Lady Henrietta, and, oh, more terrible by far, Lady Henrietta’s maid, engaged themselves as farm servants to the two stout young farmers--and then took their earnest money (Lady Henrietta didn’t know what to do with her Queen Elizabeth’s shilling, and so she dropped it)--their earnest money, which bound these two to their masters for twelve whole weary months. As her ladyship gave up the first money she had ever earned in her life, Lord Tristam came to view again--still harassed by not a few stout handmaidens, who, it seemed, had determined he should choose one of them. However, he flung a good amount of silver about; then, feeling at liberty once more, he came with an air towards the two girls; whereupon he was warned off by their new masters, who seemed rather proud of their proprietorship.