Good-bye, Mrs.Poyser; tell your husband I shall come and have a long talk with him soon." Mrs.Poyser curtsied duly, and watched the two horses until they had disappeared from the yard, amidst great excitement on the part of the pigs and the poultry, and under the furious indignation of the bull-dog, who performed a Pyrrhic dance, that every moment seemed to threaten the breaking of his chain.

Mrs.Poyser delighted in this noisy exit; it was a fresh assurance to her that the farm-yard was well guarded, and that no loiterers could enter unobserved; and it was not until the gate had closed behind the captain that she turned into the kitchen again, where Dinah stood with her bonnet in her hand, waiting to speak to her aunt, before she set out for Lisbeth Bede's cottage.
Mrs.Poyser, however, though she noticed the bonnet, deferred remarking on it until she had disburdened herself of her surprise at Mr.Irwine's behaviour.
"Why, Mr.Irwine wasn't angry, then?
What did he say to you, Dinah?
Didn't he scold you for preaching ?" "No, he was not at all angry; he was very friendly to me.

I was quite drawn out to speak to him; I hardly know how, for I had always thought of him as a worldly Sadducee.

But his countenance is as pleasant as the morning sunshine." "Pleasant! And what else did y' expect to find him but pleasant ?" said Mrs.Poyser impatiently, resuming her knitting.

"I should think his countenance is pleasant indeed! And him a gentleman born, and's got a mother like a picter.