"Punctual to the stroke," he said.
"Them as keep a post-office don't fail there," declared Mr. Huxam. "And how's yourself, Jacob? Still of a mind?"
"So much of a mind that I don't want you people to be gone till Margery's named the day," answered the lover.
"Plenty of time for that," replied Margery's mother. "There's a lot to be thought upon."
Her eyes were everywhere. She had a trick to bend her head a little when she was observing, and now, herself unmarked, Judith took in a thousand incidents, regarded with approval the spotless purity of the place, its thrifty details of contrivance and the somewhat brusque and stark lines of the outlying ground and little grass-covered garden patch.
She had never been here before, but Red House was familiar to her husband.
Mrs. Bullstone appeared at the door and in five minutes the party sat at dinner. The parlour was a plain room with a solid table, solid chairs and a solid and enormous sideboard bright with cups and trophies won by Bullstone terriers. A few dog portraits hung upon the walls, and the empty grate was heaped with red pine cones. Jacob sat at the head of the table and his mother at the foot, while Margery and her father were on Bullstone's left, Mrs. Huxam and Jeremy upon the right.
The master devoted himself to his future mother-in-law.
"Margery favours you, ma'am," he said, "and Master Jeremy's like his father."
Judith considered the suggestion.