“It’s him,” he whispered hoarsely. Against the uncertain grey background of the road a broad-shouldered young figure came swinging into sight, the outline of the broad-brimmed cavalier hat which marked the yeoman being plainly perceptible. As he drew near to the couple he paused, peering through the dusk.
“Hullo, Jim Hardy!” he cried gaily, “any message for Chrissy? I’m glad to see you walking with a lady—I’ll tell her you’ve picked up another sweetheart.”
“Get out with ’ee, do!” cried Mrs. Hardy, further relieving her lacerated feelings by making a swoop at him with the market-basket.
Jim, however, pushed past her, and making a sudden dart at his supplanter, endeavoured to knock the picturesque hat from his head. But the yeoman was too quick for him: stepping swiftly to one side he allowed his assailant’s blow to expend itself on the empty air, and then closing with him, tripped him up and laid him neatly on his back in the miry road.
“Good trick that, ain’t it?” he inquired pleasantly over his shoulder as he pursued his way. “Picked it up from the Lancashires.”
Jim lay half stunned for a moment and then struggled up, foaming at the mouth. He would have rushed in pursuit of his adversary, but that before he was fairly on his feet his mother fell upon him, market-basket and all, and held him firmly embraced until the tantalising sound of Trooper Willcocks’ cheery whistle died away in the distance.
“Well, I tell you what it is,” grumbled the hapless lover, when he had at last extricated himself. “We’ll have a try at that there image to-night, or my name bain’t Jim Hardy.”
That evening accordingly, when the rheumatic old father had been hustled off to bed, and the younger members of the family disposed of for the night, Jim confronted his mother, holding a large slab of bees’ wax in his hand.
“Where be the pins?” he asked in a fierce whisper.
“Lard, it do make I go all flittery-twittery—folks do tell such tales! If ’twarn’t for sayin’ the words, I wouldn’t so much mind. But there—the notion do make I go quite cold down the back.”