"What does David say?" "Ban’t my business," answered Mr. Bowden. The men looked at each other straight in the eyes and grasped the situation. Then Bartley shook hands with Margaret and left them. Bowden made no comment on Mr. Crocker. Indeed he did not speak at all until they had almost reached the homestead of Coombeshead. Then, suddenly, without preliminaries, he dragged a little square-nosed spaniel puppy out of his pocket, where it had been lying fast asleep. "’Tis weaned and ready to begin learning," he said. "Your brother Bart will soon teach it how to behave. But mind you let him. Don’t you try to bring it up. You’ll only spoil it. No woman I ever knowed, except Rhoda, could train a dog." The little thing licked Madge’s face while she kissed its nose. "A dinky dear! Thank you, thank you, Mr. David. ’Twill be a great treasure to me." He set his teeth and asked for a privilege. He had evidently meant to accompany this gift with a petition. "And if I may make so bold, I want for you to call me ’David,’ instead of ’Mr. David.’" He looked at her almost sternly as he spoke. His voice was slow, deep and resonant. "Of course--David." He nodded and the shadow of a smile passed over his face. "Thank you kindly," he said. The pup occupied Margaret’s attention and hid the flush upon her cheek. Then they entered together, to find the rest of the Stanbury family sitting very patiently waiting for their tea. Bartholomew Stanbury and his son, Bartholomew, were men of like instincts and outlook. Coombeshead Farm had but little land and the farmer was very poor; but father and son only grumbled in the privacy of the family circle, and presented a sturdy and indifferent attitude to the world. They were tall, well-made men, flaxen of colour and scanty of hair. Their eyes were blue; their expressions were frank; their intelligence was small and their physical courage great. Save for the difference represented by thirty years of time, father and son could hardly have been more alike; but Bartholomew Stanbury, though little more than fifty was already very bald and round in the shoulders; while "Bart," as the younger man was always called without addition, stood straight, and though his face was hairless, save for a thin moustache, a good sandy crop covered his poll. Both men rose as Madge and David appeared; both wrinkled their narrow foreheads and both smiled with precisely the same expression. The Stanburys had set their hopes on a possible match with the more prosperous and powerful Bowdens. Bartholomew, indeed, held that his daughter’s happiness must be assured if she could win such a husband as David. "Call your mother, Bart," said Mr. Stanbury, "and we’ll have tea. Haven’t seen ’e this longful time, David, but I hope all’s well to home and the rabbits running heavy." "Never better," answered young Bowden.