‘Green peas,’ he said when the paroxysm was over. ‘Duck and green peas; I shall dine off that to-morrow—and tell the cook not to forget the mint. Also some carrot sliced, boiled, then fried in Devonshire cream, with a little shallot cut very fine and toasted, sprinkled on top. ‘Sweetheart,’ aside to Eve into her ear, ‘you shall come and have a snack with me. Remember, it is an invitation. We will not have old solemn face with us as a mar-fun, shall we?’
The woodman’s hut when reached after a slow ascent was found to be small, warm, and in good condition. It was so low that a man could not stand upright in it, but it was sufficiently long to allow him to lie his length therein. The sides were of wattled oak branches, compacted with heather and moss, and the roof was of turf. The floor was dry, deep bedded in fern.
‘It is a dog’s kennel,’ said the dissatisfied Martin; ‘or rather it is not so good as that. It is the sort of place made for swans and geese and ducks beside a pond, for shelter when they lay their eggs. It really is humiliating that I should have to bury my head in a sort of water-fowl’s sty.’
Eve promised that Martin should have whatever he desired. Jasper had, naturally, a delicacy in offering anything beyond his own services, though he knew he could rely on Barbara.
When they had seen the exhausted and anguished martyr gracefully reposing on the bracken bed, to rest after his painful walk, and had already left, they were recalled by his voice shouting to Jasper, regardless of every consideration that should have kept him quiet, ‘Don’t be a fool, Jasper, and shake the bottle. If you break the crust I won’t drink it.’ And again the call came, ‘Mind the green peas.’
As Jasper and Eve walked back to Morwell neither spoke much, but on reaching the last gate, Eve said—
‘O, dear Mr. Jasper, do help me to persuade Barbie to let me go! I have made up my mind; I must and will see the play and hear all that the manager can tell me about my mother.’
‘I will go to Plymouth, Miss Eve. I must see this Mr. Justice Barret, and I will learn every particular for you.’
‘That is not enough. I want to see a play. I have never been to a theatre in all my life.’