“I am glad to hear it. But about Pina; how comes she to be sleeping here?”
“Well, sir, you see there’s been a ’larm at the house; and Pina, she was feared—”
“‘An alarm at the house?’ What sort of an alarm?” anxiously inquired Mr. Lyon.
“Well, sir, if you will please to let me walk along home with you I could tell you as I go along.”
“Come then and be quick.”
“Oh lor, Brother Leo, ask master to wait for me, please. I don’t dare to stay here all alone by myself!” exclaimed Pina, scuttling down from the loft as fast as she could come.
“Hurry then, you provoking fool; and mind, I have an account to settle with you when you come,” said Mr. Lyon, as he stamped his feet and clapped his hands to keep his almost congealed blood in circulation, while the fierce wind whirled his riding-coat round and round.
Meantime Leo quickly took down his own overcoat from its peg in the coach-room, and put it on.
“Now then! How dared you to leave your mistress and come down here to sleep, eh?” angrily demanded Mr. Lyon, as Pina came to the side of her brother.
“Please, sir, it was along of the fright. And mistress said I might. And no more wasn’t she angry long o’ me for it,” whimpered the girl.