“Then don’t ’ee, Granfer, or not a scrinch o’ sugar or nutmeg in y’r egg-an’-milk an’ nary a spot o’ rum. So be a good lad an’ come ’long o’ me!”
“Well, Robert,” quoth Sir John, seating himself on the stile again so soon as they were alone, “my letter reached you in time, then?”
“And I’m here in conse-quence, sir!”
“What is all this about Sturton?”
Ex-Corporal Robert shifted his right foot slightly, and raising stiff arm, coughed deprecatingly behind a discreet hand.
“Sir,” he answered, “I regret to be obleeged to inform your honour that I opened hostilities this morning without your honour’s orders, feeling myself obligated thereto by reason of a young fe-male——”
“I suggest ‘maid,’ Robert.”
“Maid, your honour, which young female crying out——”
“Damsel, Robert.”
“Damsel, your honour ... crying out, sir, I observed said young fe——”