"How did he come, miss?"
"By train from Eastbourne—no doubt he walked from the station."
"I'll drive him back," exclaimed Kerry, in quite an amiable voice. "Sure he'll be weary on his legs. Why not? I'll borrow his riverence's trap and the little mare with the white foreleg, but——"
"Kerry, father might not like it."
"Get along with ye," said Kerry cheerfully; "sure his riverence has offered the trap a hundred times. I'll take it on myself to explain to the master. Keep Mr. Hilliston here till he sees me arriving up this road—a dirty one it is, too, bad cess to it!"
He was hurrying off, when Jenny stopped him. She saw that his borrowing of the vicar's honey trap was a mere excuse to get Hilliston to himself for half an hour, and, rendered more curious than ever by Kerry's artful way of arranging matters, she ran after him and pulled his sleeve.
"Kerry! Kerry! Has Mr. Hilliston come over to see papa about the Larcher affair?"
"How should I know," retorted Kerry, relapsing into his crusty humor; "for shame, Miss Jenny! Is it your business or mine?"
"It is mine," said the girl, with a resolute look on her face. "Mr. Hilliston came over to ask me to be silent about what was contained in those papers you took from me."
"How does he know of that, miss?"