It was seldom that Mr. Simnel was nonplussed, but this was beyond him. He had only caught one word, and that he thought better to repeat. So he merely ejaculated "matter?"
"Ay, matther!" echoed the old man, this time in rather an angry tone. "Waät be matther down yon?" jerking his head towards the house. Mr. Simnel thought that the man was presuming on his position to take liberties, a very terrible crime in his eyes, so he simply elevated his thick eyebrows and echoed, "Down yon?"
"Thou knowst waät a mean, sir, weel enow. Waät be matther wi' my leddy? waät be matther wi' my bright lassie ai've tended this ever so long?" and the old man's face puckered up into wrinkles, and he produced from his hat a cotton handkerchief, with which he rubbed his eyes.
"What do you mean. Freeman? I didn't follow you until this instant. Is--is your mistress ill?" asked Simnel.
"No, not ill; that's to say waät folks call ill; always greetin', that waät she is,--thinkin' of something yon,--givin' no heed to waät goes on close to her face. Eyes lookin' far away out into the distance; no thowt of the stock such as she had; hasn't been into the farrier's shop these three weeks,--blister here, singe there, do as 't loikes; Miss never says nay now, and that's bad sign; for a more thrifty body never stepped."
"Ah, she doesn't take such interest, you mean, in what goes on here as she did."
"Int'rest! She cares nowt aboot it!" said the old man. "Ther' soommut oop, soommut wring! that's what thee is. Ther' can't have been no one a philanderin' wi' her, on and off like,--you understand?"
"I should think not," said Mr. Simnel, with a face as solid as a rock.
"If I'd thowt that," said old Freeman, "and I'd found 'em out, I'd beat 'ems brains out as if it were a stoat!" and as he spoke he struck the palm of his hand with the handle of his hunting-whip in an unmistakably vicious manner. "Dunno waät's coom to her to-day," he continued, after a pause; "haven't set eyes on her all the morning. Hasn't been in t'yard, hasn't been in t'staäbles, hasn't moved out of t'house."
This latter part of Freeman's speech seemed to arouse Mr. Simnel's fading attention; he looked up sharply, and said,