Miss Haldane put up her eyeglasses and looked at the landscape.
“Very nice, my dear. Jabez said the hay harvest was unusually good this year.”
Jabez was the head gardener.
Anne laughed softly. “You are so delightfully practical, Matty dear. If the sun shines [Pg 96]you think of the crops, if the rain falls you think of the crops, if the wind blows you still think of the crops. You missed your vocation when you took up the post of companion to a sentimental dreamer; you should have been a farmer.”
“Had the good Lord made me a man, I should have been one,” replied Miss Haldane instantly. “As it is, I take an interest in the farming of your tenants. And you must allow that weather is of the first importance to them.” She dropped her eyeglasses and looked at Anne.
“I know,” owned Anne; “but turnips do not appeal to me. I love my flowers to have their needs supplied, however; and that shows that I am selfish enough to be merely interested in what interests me.”
There was a pause.
“The cottage in the copse has found an inhabitant,” said Miss Haldane suddenly and abruptly. “I can’t call him a tenant because the man pays no rent. I suppose no one knows to whom the rent would be due.”
“Really!” exclaimed Anne, replying to the first part of Miss Haldane’s speech. “Who has been bold enough to venture there?”
“A vagabond of sorts, I believe,” said Miss Haldane. “Of course, the villagers are looking upon him with suspicion and distrust. He wears a peacock feather in his hat and plays the penny whistle.”