Walden walked up and down, Ms hands loosely clasped behind his back, lost in thought.
"We won't give it up altogether, Bainton," he said; "We'll try and find some other way--"
"There's goin' to be another way," declared Bainton, significantly; "There's trouble brewin' in the village, an' m'appen when Oliver Leach gets up to the woods to-morrow mornin' he'll find a few ready to meet 'im!"
Walden stopped abruptly.
"What do you mean?"
"'Tain't for me to say;" and Bainton pretended to be very busy in pulling up one or two plantains from the lawn; "But I tells ye true, Passon, the Five Sisters ain't goin' to be laid low without a shindy!"
John's eyes sparkled. He scented battle, and was not by any means displeased.
"This is Tuesday, isn't it?" he asked abruptly; "This is the day Miss Vancourt has arranged to return?"
"It is so, sir," replied Bainton; "and it's believed the arrangements 'olds good--for change'er mind as a woman will, 'er 'osses an' groom's arrived--and a dog as large as they make 'em, which 'is name is Plato."
Walden gave a slight gesture of annoyance. Here was a fresh cause of antipathy to the approaching Miss Vancourt. No one but a careless woman, devoid of all taste and good feeling, would name a dog after the greatest of Greek philosophers!
"Plato's a good name," went on Bainton meditatively, unconscious of the view his master was taking of that name in his own mind; "I've 'eard it somewheres before, though I couldn't tell just where. And it's a fine dog. I was up at the Manor this mornin' lookin' round the grounds, just to see 'ow they'd been a-gettin' on--and really it isn't so bad considerin', and I was askin' a question or two of Spruce, and he showed me the dog lyin' on the steps of the Manor, lookin' like a lion's baby snoozin' in the sun, and waitin' as wise as ye like for his mistress. He don't appear at all put out by new faces or new grounds--he's took to the place quite nat'ral."
"You saw Spruce early, then?"
"Yes, sir, I see Spruce, and arter 'ollerin' 'ard at 'im for 'bout ten minutes, he sez, sez he, as gentle as a child sez he: 'Yes, the Five Sisters is a-comin' down to-morrow mornin', and we's all to be there a quarter afore six with ropes and axes.'"
John started walking up and down again.