But Joe Chegg said nothing, only ate, and frowned, and shook his head till he had done; and after a time Dally, having nothing else to do, thrust a little plump hand right down a black stocking till her knuckles represented the heel which had been peering through a large hole, and then and there she began to make worsted trellis-work which looked to Joe Chegg very similar to what he had often done in wood. The drawing-room bell rang, but before Dally could answer it, Salis appeared at the door. "Don't go away, Chegg, my lad," he said. "I don't know what visitors may come, and I should like you to hang about the place and watch." "Well, you see, sir," said Joe sturdily, "there's a man's time." "Oh, yes," said Salis, smiling; "you shall be paid double time." "For how long, sir?" "Wait and see; and keep a good lookout about the premises." He said these words as he was leaving the kitchen door, and met Leo in the hall, directly after, with her handsome eyes looking at him inquiringly. It was observable, too, in the kitchen that Dally's countenance looked a little more intent and she bent a little more over her stocking, and began to hum as she darned, while Joe Chegg took up the ale mug, and, after looking into it meditatively, began to work the table-spoonful left at the bottom round and round as if he were preparing an experiment whose aim was to keep one little blot of froth right in the centre like a tiny island of foam in a small sea of beer. "Yes; I'll watch," he said to the mug; "and it won't be the first time. It arn't much goes on as I don't see." Dally hummed and ceased to look catlike in her quiescence, for her aspect was kittenish now, and her hum deepened every now and then into a purr. "Strange things goes on in this here village," continued Joe, gazing into the mug; "and I sees a deal of what young ladies and persons does." Daily's purr would now have done credit to a Persian puss: it was so soft and pleasant and round. "But of all the things as ever I've see o' young ladies, I never see aught as ekalled the way as Miss Mary's got strong and well." Dally hummed now, and her tones were those of a musical bee, while the trellis-work in the stocking grew and grew. "Well," said Joe, after getting the drop of froth to stand very high out of its beery-whirlpool, "I'm a-goin' to play policeman now." He tossed the remainder of the beer into his throat, and set down the mug. "There arn't many jobs as comes amiss to me." He rose and walked out of the kitchen, and as Dally saw him from the window on his way round to the front, she gave her stocking-covered fist a dab down on the table and uttered an angry "_Ugh_!" Joe Chegg was not playing policeman long before he ran to the front door and knocked. "Mist--Salis, sir! Mist--Salis. Here's one on 'em." Salis was with North, and did not hear, so that when a keen old gentleman with white hair alighted from a fly, it was to find the door barred by the sturdy young workman.