He opened his eyes wide for once, and stared at her, but without another word Mrs. Edwards left the room, followed by Rhys and Griffith, who had previously paid his rent.
'You touched him there,' said they both in a breath, when clear of the inn.
They would have been sure of it had they seen him start from his seat and grasp the arms of his chair, exclaiming, as he sank back again—
'Confound the woman! What did she mean? Is the lease found? And what meant her innuendo anent his lordship's knowledge. They cannot have—but—no, no!' And there he sat biting his long nails in perplexity, oblivious of frequent knocks at the door, or tenants waiting in the passage for their turn.
No, the lease had not been found, but something else had, from which Mrs. Edwards derived her courage.
In the first outpouring of her indignation she had forbidden William to proceed with his thatching. But he was equally persistent.
'What, mother!' he cried hotly, 'leave that bit of a place unroofed to be telling old Pryse that we be frightened by his dirty paper? Not I. And it's my belief his lordship does not know one word about it, whatever.'
The words dropped from his lips like an inspiration. His mother caught at them.
William, taking the bit between his teeth, was up his ladder, with John Llwyd in attendance, before she had fully mastered the probabilities of the case.
It was not a long business, for considering the state of affairs he was not so foolhardy as to re-roof the whole farm. But to make a neat job of it he had to clear away the worn and jagged edges of the old thatch to make an even joining.