'Well, he is not the man for you to make a friend of, mind that.'
'Man!' she said. 'Jack, he is only a boy—just sixteen. You did not call yourself a man then when you were at the Grammar School at Wells. But, Jack—' she said more seriously.
'I don't want to talk any more about the apprentice, though I pity him just as I should pity a young eagle shut up in a close cage, and feeling all his strength to rise to the sun of no use. Oh, yes, I do pity him, and so ought you.'
'I shall pity myself more if you give him all your company another Sunday and shut me out.'
'Don't be silly, Jack; I am not one to cast off old friends for new. But, Jack, I am so frightened when I think the Squire is in Bristol. What did he come for?'
'What was he saying to you by the orchard gate that evening I came upon you?'
'Oh, that I could not tell you; it was all meant to flatter me, and I hate him.'
'Why did he say he would give your grandfather a month before he sold off?'
Bryda hesitated.
'He said something about he would have me instead of the money.'