"Then Richard has left it to me," he said, half aloud.
"Isaac! Isaac! what will Mr. Kyne think of me?" murmured Anna.
Isaac laughed. "The most he can think is that we are sweethearts," he answered in his light manner.
"Oh, Isaac, have you considered? If scandal should arise!"
"My darling, I have told you why that cannot be. At the first breath of it I should avow the truth. Scandal! how is it possible, when we are living here but as common acquaintances?"
At the gate of the Red Court he let her enter alone, and ran back in search of Mr. Kyne. That functionary lodged at a cottage just beyond the village, and Isaac found him poking up his small fire to make the little tin kettle boil, preparatory to making his tea.
"I have come to carry you off to dinner," said Isaac. "We have got a friend or two dropped in from Jutpoint, and the parson's coming. There's a brave codfish and turkey."
Weak tea and bread-and-butter at home in his poor small room; and the handsome dinner table, the light, the warmth, the social friends at Justice Thornycroft's. It was a wide contrast, making Mr. Kyne's mouth water. He had dined at one o'clock off a mutton chop, and was hungry again. Codfish and turkey!
"I'll come with pleasure, Mr. Isaac. I must just say a word to Puffer first, if there's time."
"All right; I'll go with you," said Isaac.