After breakfast Longman went over to the Hall to see his friends.
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, standing together at the door, watched him walking down the walled road that led to the park gates.
“It is astonishing,” said the curate, “that so honest a man as Longman should have such a respect for that villain Montgomery as he appears to have.”
“I suppose the young fellow has never seen the villain’s cloven foot, and men have no intuitions to guide them as we have, you know,” replied Hetty.
And then, though the splendor of the day invited them to remain outdoors, they went inside, each to his or her own work.
The minister went to his study to work on his next Sunday morning’s sermon. Hetty to her linen closet to look over her stores for mending. Jennie, well wrapped up, to take her baby, also warmly clad, through the garden walks. Elspeth to her kitchen to wash up the breakfast service.
The minister, however, had scarcely got under way with his manuscripts before the doorbell rang, and he sprang up to answer it.
Prowt, the bailiff of Haymore, stood there.
“Could I speak to your reverence a moment, sir?” he inquired.
“Certainly. Come in,” replied Mr. Campbell, and led the visitor into the study.