"Will you kindly get a glass of water for your mother, Mr Glaire?" said the vicar, as he half held up the trembling woman in her chair, and strove hard to keep the disgust he felt from showing in his face--"I am afraid she will faint." "Curse the water! No," roared Richard. "I won't have it--I--I say I won't have it; and who the devil are you, that you should come poking your nose into our business! You'll soon find that Dumford is not the place for a meddling parson to do as he likes." "Dick!" shrieked Eve; and she tried to lay a hand upon his lips. "Hold your tongue, Eve! Am I master here, or not?" cried Richard Glaire. "I won't have a parcel of women meddling in my affairs, nor any kind of old woman," he continued, disdainfully glancing at the vicar. There was a slight accession of colour in Murray Selwood's face, but he paid no further heed to the young man's words, while, with her face crimson with shame, Eve bent over her aunt, trying to restore her, for she was indeed half fainting; and the cold clammy dew stood upon her forehead. "Here's a mug o' watter, sir," said the rough, sturdy voice of Joe Banks, as he filled one from a shelf; and then he threw open a couple of windows to let the air blow in more freely. "Don't let anybody here think I'm a child," continued Richard Glaire, who, the danger passed, was now white with passion; "and don't let anybody here, mother or foreman, or stranger, think I'm a man to be played with." "There's nobody thinks nothing at all, my lad," said Joe Banks, sharply, "only that if the parson there hadn't come on as he did, you'd have been a pretty figure by this time, one as would ha' made your poor moother shoother again." "Hold your tongue, sir; how dare you speak to me like that!" roared Richard. "How dare I speak to you like that, my lad?" said the foreman, smiling. "Well, because I've been like a sort of second father to you in the works, and if you'd listened to me, instead of being so arbitrary, there wouldn't ha' been this row." "You insolent--" "Oh yes, all raight, Master Richard, all raight," said the foreman, bluffly. "Dick, dear Dick," whispered Eve, clinging to his arm; but he shook her off. "Hold your tongue, will you!" he shrieked. "Look here, you Banks," he cried, "if you dare to speak to me like that I'll discharge you; I will, for an example." Banks laughed, and followed the raving man to the other end of the great counting-house to whisper: "No you wean't, lad, not you." Richard started, and turned of a sickly hue as he confronted the sturdy old foreman. "Think I didn't know you, my lad, eh?" he whispered; and driving his elbow at the same time into the young man's chest, he puckered up his face, and gave him a knowing smile. "No, you wean't start me, Richard Glaire, I know. But I say, my lad, don't be so hard on the poor lass there, your cousin." "Will you hold your tongue?" gasped Richard. "They'll hear you."