"Really," said Bayle, smiling; "I'm afraid it would be very much out of place, Mrs Pinet." "Well, I'm sorry you say so, sir, for the way that Gemp goes on gets to be beyond bearing. He actually stopped that child, took the letter from him, read the direction, and then asked the boy who it was from, and whether he was to wait for an answer." "Never mind, Mrs Pinet; it is very complimentary of Mr Gemp to take so much interest in my affairs." "It made me feel quite popped, sir," cried the woman; "but of course it be no business of mine." Bayle read the letter, and changed colour, as he connected it with Sir Gordon's questions, for it was a request that the curate would come up and see Thickens that evening on very particular business. VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX. JAMES THICKENS MAKES A COMMUNICATION. "Master's in the garden feeding his fish," said the girl, as she admitted Bayle. "I'll go and tell him you're here, sir." "No; let me go to him," said Bayle quietly. The girl led the way down a red-bricked floored passage, and opened a door, through which the visitor passed, and then stood looking at the scene before him. There was not much garden, but James Thickens was proud of it, because it was his own. It was only a strip, divided into two beds by a narrow walk of red bricks--so many laid flat with others set on edge to keep the earth from falling over, and sullying the well-scrubbed path, which was so arranged by its master that the spigot of the rain-water butt could be turned on now and then and a birch broom brought into requisition to keep all clean. Each bed was a mass of roses--dwarf roses that crept along the ground by the path, and then others that grew taller till the red brick wall on either side was reached, and this was clambered, surmounted, and almost completely hidden by clusters of small blossoms. No other flower grew in this patch of a garden; but, save in the very inclement weather, there were always buds and blossoms to be picked, and James Thickens was content. From where Bayle stood he could just see Thickens at the hither side of the great bricked and cemented tank that extended across the bottom of his and the two adjoining gardens, while beyond was the steam-mill, where Mawson the miller had introduced that great power to work his machinery. He it was who had contrived the tank for some scheme in connection with the mill, and had then made some other plan after leading into it through a pipe the clear water of the dam on the other side of the mill, and arranging a proper exit when it should be too full. Then he had given it up as unnecessary, merely turning into it a steam-pipe, to get rid of the waste, and finally had let it to Thickens for his whim.