'It will be very dull for you here,' said Roland, beating the shrubs lightly with his ash stick as they walked up the path; 'and, I am sorry to say I shall have to be out this evening. I must go down to our solicitor to arrange about several things. You won't think me an awful bear?'
'Don't mention it; I shall be very well amused, I doubt not. I can take a walk if I find I miss you very much, and then I shall be sure to lose myself, and there is some excitement to be got out of that.'
That evening John Hatfield was sitting on the oak settle by his hearth, his wife with her knitting in the substantial rocking-chair opposite. The interior was cosy and bright enough. A high wooden screen protected the inmates from any cold air that might else have come through the door, which opened straight from the house-place into the street. A short red curtain hung in front of the long low window, that was nearly as wide as the room itself. There was a chintz flounce to the chimney-piece, and a bright round table, on three legs, in the middle of the room. There was a good deal of shining brass about, and a few pieces of old china. Mrs Hatfield, a small fair woman, with grey, short-sighted eyes, had more lines in her face than her years should have traced there. But the poor age much more rapidly than the rich. Significant reflection. And every trouble leaves its signet on our faces, and Mrs Hatfield's trouble had been a heavy one, and its traces were easily discernible. So thought Count Litvinoff, as he tapped at the door and entered John Hatfield's house, and the thought was not a pleasant one. Derbyshire was certainly not the place to come to for pleasant thoughts, or pleasant incidents either.
'Is't thee, man?' said Hatfield, leaning forward to discern the features of his visitor in the comparative gloom by the door where he stood. 'Come in—come to the fire. Here, lass, this is the chap I telled ye on.'
As Litvinoff held out his hand to Mrs Hatfield her husband went on,—
'Ay, shake his hand, lass; you don't so often get to shake hands wi' an honest man, and a brave man—'
Alice's father speaking of him to Alice's mother! Another pleasant incident for Count Litvinoff!