“What is the matter? Who was he? Why did he go off like that?” he said.
Olivia was silent for a moment.
“That is the gentleman who has bought The Dell, papa. Mr. Faradeane.”
The squire started.
“It was he, was it? And he saved Bessie’s life?”
“She says so, papa. He was hurt. Did you see the marks on his forehead?”
“No,” said the squire. “I scarcely saw his face, and yet from what I saw of it I should say, emphatically, that he was a gentleman.”
“Oh, yes!” murmured Olivia, drawing her shawl round her.
“Most certainly a gentleman. It was a striking face. What nonsense was it that Sparrow was talking of a coiner or something of that kind? He could not have seen the man.”
“It was not Mr. Sparrow, but Mr. Bradstone, who suggested that Mr. Faradeane was a coiner,” she said in a low voice.