“I don’t quite know what you mean,” said Dick, in a bewildered manner.
“How long do you want to stop, and what do you want us to do for you?” asked the old man, impatiently.
“I want to lie here only until I am strong enough to get on to the nearest hotel. I will pay you for the accommodation, and for the food I eat. I am really very hungry now; may I have something more to eat?” Dick asked, turning his head to look at Nell, who stood by the side of the settle, her face a study of vexation and worry.
“Can you pay for it, I want to know?” Doss Umpey began, but Nell silenced him in an imperious fashion.
“It won’t make any difference, anyhow, granfer, for we ain’t going to let him starve, and if you ain’t willing for him to have supper, you won’t get any yourself.”
“Of course I’m willing he should eat. Only a poor man like me, with others depending on him, has got to be careful,” grumbled the old man, climbing down with so much haste that Dick would have laughed if he had not been so angry.
He was about to fumble for his pocket-book in order to hurl some money at his inhospitable host; but Nell, divining his intention, stopped him with an authoritative gesture, then spoke to the old man with quiet decision in her manner.
“If you are so anxious to get rid of the gentleman, granfer, you had best give Blossom a good supper to-night; then by to-morrow morning the horse could take him to Button End. They’d be able to house him comfortable at Joe Lipton’s.”
“That’s a good idea, Nell. What a pity you didn’t think of it sooner! Then I’d have saddled the beast and taken him over to-night. We should have been able to be quit of him the sooner.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t have been fit to go to-night,” she answered.