“Ah, up to my heart,” said Dan, and Betty coloured beneath the twinkle in his eyes.
The colour was still in her face when the Major came out, with Mrs. Ambler on his arm, and led the way to supper.
“All of us are hungry, and some of us have a day's ride behind us,” he remarked, as, after the rector's grace, he stood waving the carving-knife above the roasted turkey. “I'd like to know how often during the last hour you've thought of this turkey, Mr. Morson?”
“It has had a fair share of my thoughts, I'm forced to admit, Major,” responded Jack Morson, readily. He was a hearty, light-haired young fellow, with a girlish complexion and pale blue eyes, as round as marbles. “As fair a share as the apple toddy has had of Diggs's, I'll be bound.”
“Apple toddy!” protested Diggs, turning his serious face, flushed from the long ride, upon the Major. “I was too busy thinking we should never get here; and we were lost once, weren't we, Beau?” he asked of Dan.
“Well, I for one am safely housed for the night, doctor,” declared the rector, with an uneasy glance through the window, “and I trust that Mrs. Blake's reproach will melt before the snow does. But what's that about being lost, Dan?”
“Oh, we got off the road,” replied Dan; “but I gave Prince Rupert the rein and he brought us in. The sense that horse has got makes me fairly ashamed of going to college in his place; and I may as well warn you, Mr. Blake, that when I get ready to go to Heaven, I shan't seek your guidance at all—I'll merely nose Prince Rupert at the Bible and give him his head.”
“It's a comfort to know, at least, that you won't be trusting to your own deserts, my boy,” responded the rector, who dearly loved his joke, as he helped himself to yellow pickle.
“Let us hope that the straight and narrow way is a little clearer than the tavern road to-night,” said Champe. “I'm afraid you'll have trouble getting back, Governor.”
“Afraid!” took up the Major, before the Governor could reply. “Why, where are your manners, my lad? It will be no ill wind that keeps them beneath our roof. We'll make room for you, ladies, never fear; the house will stretch itself to fit the welcome, eh, Molly?”