“Is it a bargain?” asked one of the girls.
“No,” said he, and walked rapidly away.
He went to the house, and, finding that Robert had arrived, took his hat, and left by the rear door. There was a grassy alley between the orchard and garden, from which it was divided by a high hawthorn hedge. He had scarcely taken three paces on his way to the meadow, when the sound of the voice he had last heard, on the other side of the hedge, arrested his feet.
“Becky, I think you rather hurt Jake Flint,” said the girl.
“Hardly,” answered Becky; “he's used to that.”
“Not if he likes you; and you might go further and fare worse.”
“Well, I MUST say!” Becky exclaimed, with a laugh; “you'd like to see me stuck in that hollow, out of your way!”
“It's a good farm, I've heard,” said the other.
“Yes, and covered with as much as it'll bear!”
Here the girls were called away to the dance. Jacob slowly walked up the dewy meadow, the sounds of fiddling, singing, and laughter growing fainter behind him.