"And you're a brute. What does a man want with brains in a woman, anyway. Maria had them and they didn't keep her from coming to shipwreck."
Christopher reached for the lantern.
"Well, I've got to go now," he broke in, "and you'd better be trotting home or you'll have the old man and the hounds out after you."
With the lantern swinging from his hand, he went to the door and waited for Will; then passing out, he turned the key in the lock, and with a short "Good-night!" started briskly toward the house.
Will followed him to the kitchen steps, and then keeping to the path that trailed across the yard, he passed through the whitewashed gate and went on along the sunken road which led by the abandoned ice-pond. Here he turned into the avenue of chestnuts, and with the lighted windows of the Hall before him, walked slowly toward the impending interview with his grandfather.
As he entered the house, Miss Saidie looked out from the dining-room doorway and beckoned in a stealthy fashion with the hen-house key.
"He has been hunting everywhere for you," she whispered, "and I told him you'd gone for a little stroll along the road."
An expression of anger swept over Will's face, and he made a helpless gesture of revolt.
"I won't stand it any longer," he answered, with a spurt of resolution which was exhausted in the feeble speech.
Miss Saidie put up her hand and straightened his necktie with an affectionate pat.