"Yes," continued I, "he's going to be father's bailiff."
"Bailiff!" repeated Reuben, again putting on his most stolid air. "I knows nothing about that."
"Well," explained I, trying neither to laugh nor to be annoyed, "that means that he is going to manage the land and give orders the same as father, so that there'll be two masters instead of one."
Reuben continued rubbing down the mare's coat till it began to shine like satin.
"I've heard tell," answered he at last, "there's something in the Book that says a man don't have no call to serve two masters."
This time I did laugh outright. "Oh, that's different, Reuben," said I—"that's different; but these two masters will both be good, and both will want you to do the same thing."
"Do ye know that for sure, miss?" asked Reuben, again, and I had a lurking suspicion that he did not ask in a perfectly teachable spirit. "I've heard tell as when there be two masters, they always wants a man to do just the opposite things."
I paused a moment. I did not know what to answer, for it seemed to me as though there might be a great deal of truth in this.
But I said, bravely, "Oh no, Reuben."
Reuben scratched his head. "Well, miss, Farmer Maliphant, he have been my master fifteen year come Michaelmas, and he have been a good master to me. Many another would have turned me away because o' the drink. It was chill work at times down there on the marsh when I was with the sheep, and the drink was a comfort. I nigh upon died o' the drink, but Farmer Maliphant he have been patient with me, and he give me another chance when others would have sacked me without a word. And now I be what parson calls a reformed character."