She sent the maid running off at once. The kitchen fire was nearly out and the kettle would not boil. It seemed to her an age before she could get it boiling. Then she filled a jug with tea and prepared to take it to him. At the door a shadow startled her and she gave a cry. Abner was standing on the step. ‘It’s a bad job,’ he said. ‘She’s gone. She went off quite sudden.’ She did not realise what he was saying. She gave a nervous laugh. ‘Oh, what a start you gave me!’ she said, putting down the jug on the table. And then, suddenly, she put her hands to her face and started sobbing hysterically. ‘Don’t take on like that!’ he said. ‘It’s no fault of yourn.’ ‘Oh, it’s not that!’ she cried. ‘It’s not that!’ He put his hand on her shoulder, trying to soothe her, and the next moment she was clinging in his arms and he was covering her face and neck with kisses. Harris, who had run up from his cottage as fast as he could travel, stood panting and gazing at them in the doorway, but neither Abner nor Marion saw him, and when he had stared at them for a moment he moved quietly across the yard into the byre. The Twenty-Second Chapter WHEN Mr Prosser returned from Craven Arms next evening he was in a bad temper. At the Railway Hotel on the night before he had fallen in with a number of cattle dealers from North Bromwich and Manchester. He had drunk more than he could stand, and had sat up playing cards in the commercial room till three o’clock in the morning, losing the price of a bullock in the process. Marion, who met him at Llandwlas station, told him that the Devon cow had died in the night. ‘Died?’ said he, ‘what do you mean “died”? She was all right yesterday.’ ‘Fellows says it was bronchitis. It was awful to see her breathing.’ ‘Bronchitis! They don’t die that quick with bronchitis. What the hell does Fellows know about it?’ ‘He couldn’t have done more than he did,’ she replied. ‘He sat up with her till she went.’ ‘I’ve never known such an unlucky year,’ he grumbled. ‘Hayes’s wife says that he won’t be out of hospital for another month or more. Fellows means well enough, but he’s not like an experienced cowman.’ He sat broodily in the trap for a few moments. ‘Why didn’t you send for Harris?’ he asked at length. ‘We did, but Daisy died before he could get up.’ ‘I shall advertise for a cowman,’ he said, with a show of determination that gave him a better opinion of himself. ‘Fellows did his best. It wasn’t his fault.’ ‘What do you know about it, anyway?’ said Mr Prosser roughly. Reaching The Dyke in the worst of tempers, he had not even time to give Ethel the kiss for which she stood waiting. He went straight into the dining-room and mixed himself a stiff whisky and water, then, feeling masterful and businesslike, he went straight out into the fields to look for Harris. He found him driving in his team from the plough. ‘Did you see Daisy last night?’ he asked.