He's going to turn me out of my cottage, he says." "Nonsense, Mrs Hearn!" "Jolliffe came and told me"-- Jolliffe, I should explain, was the bailiff,--"that if I didn't like it as it was, I might leave it, and that the squire could get double the rent for it.

Now all I asked was that he should do a little painting in the kitchen; and the wood is all as black as his hat." "I thought it was understood you were to paint inside." "How can I do it, my dear, with a hundred and forty pounds for everything?
I must live, you know! And he that has workmen about him every day of the year! And was that a message to send to me, who have lived in the parish for fifty years?
Here he is." And Mrs Hearn majestically raised herself from her seat as the squire entered the room.
With him entered Mr and Mrs Boyce, from the parsonage, with Dick Boyce, the ungrown gentleman, and two girl Boyces, who were fourteen and fifteen years of age.

Mrs Dale, with the amount of good-nature usual on such occasions, asked reproachfully why Jane, and Charles, and Florence, and Bessy, did not come,--Boyce being a man who had his quiver full of them,--and Mrs Boyce, giving the usual answer, declared that she already felt that they had come as an avalanche.
"But where are the--the--the young men ?" asked Lily, assuming a look of mock astonishment.
"They'll be across in two or three hours' time," said the squire.
"They both dressed for dinner, and, as I thought, made themselves very smart; but for such a grand occasion as this they thought a second dressing necessary.

How do you do, Mrs Hearn?
I hope you are quite well.

No rheumatism left, eh ?" This the squire said very loud into Mrs Hearn's ear.