in the way of feeding at least.
Julia poured out tea for her husband and filled his plate with game pie and bread and butter, and made him eat and drink and set him a good example in that agreeable duty.
In the meantime the company in the drawing-room were getting a little weary of waiting.
Mr. Hay had contrived to draw the curate aside, where they could settle the affair of the living. It was but a short conference, for Mr. Campbell was glad and grateful to accept it. At the end of their talk the minister said very sincerely:
“The utmost that I dared to hope for was the curacy under the new rector, whoever he should be! But the living! It is more than I ever dreamed of or deserved! Yet will I, with the Lord’s help, do my utmost for the parish.”
What Ran might have replied was cut short with some sudden violence.
First by the heavy rumbling and tumbling of some clumsy carryall over the rough drive as it drew up to the front of the Hall and stopped; then by loud and angry tones of voice; then by a resounding peal of knocks on the door which seemed to reverberate through the entire building.
The arrival was an embodied storm that threatened to dash in the entire front of the house.
In the library John Legg sprang up and bolted the door against the uproar, and then sat down by his trembling wife.
In the drawing-room all was excitement and expectation.