"Jane, child," she said to her daughter, "I am really concerned that you should have no better attendance in your journey than that fellow Jackson. I do indeed think we must send him back, and get you a more suitable man." Mrs Jane was on her knees, packing a little leather trunk. She looked up for a moment, and then resumed her work, giving all her attention to a troublesome box, which would not fit into the space that she had left for it. "Is he unsuitable, madam? I pray you, how so?" "Child, the man doth not know his business. He is now in the yard, looking to your saddle and harness; and he doth not know how to take the collar off the horse. Dick bade him lift the collar off Bay Winchester, and he was for taking it off without turning it. And really, some of his--" The sentence was never finished. "O, Madam! O, Mrs Jane!" cried Millicent, coming in with uplifted hands. "That horrid creature. I'm certain sure he's a Roundhead! Robin has heard him speak such dreadful words! Do, I beseech you, madam, tell the Colonel that he is cherishing a crocodile in his bosom. We shall all be murdered in our beds before night!" Mrs Jane sat back on the floor and laughed. "Ah, my dear young gentlewoman, you may laugh," was the solemn comment of Millicent; "but I do assure you 'tis no laughing matter. If Mrs Jane will not listen to reason, madam, I beg _you_ to hear me when I tell you what I have heard." The solemnity of Millicent's tones was something awful. Mrs Jane, however, was so misguided as to laugh again; but her mother said, in a half-alarmed tone, "Well, Millicent, what is it? You speak of the new man, Jackson, I suppose?" "Madam, Robin tells me that early this morning, as soon as my Lord Wilmot was gone, he went down to the blacksmith's with something of the Colonel's--a chain, I think he said, or was it--" "Never mind what it was," said Mrs Jane; "let us have the story."