For this hour, to-night, the Hurds were happy.
Meanwhile, in the lane outside, Marcella, as she walked home, passed a tall broad-shouldered man in a velveteen suit and gaiters, his gun over his shoulder and two dogs behind him, his pockets bulging on either side.

He walked with a kind of military air, and touched his cap to her as he passed.
Marcella barely nodded.
"Tyrant and bully!" she thought to herself with Mrs.Hurd's story in her mind.

"Yet no doubt he is a valuable keeper; Lord Maxwell would be sorry to lose him! It is the system makes such men--and must have them." The clatter of a pony carriage disturbed her thoughts.

A small, elderly lady, in a very large mushroom hat, drove past her in the dusk and bowed stiffly.

Marcella was so taken by surprise that she barely returned the bow.