He went out, probably to fill and put on the kettle himself; and came back with an armful of wood for the fire. In the light of a splendid blaze the four friends sat in a half circle round the fireplace, and the evening was falling gray outside.
'Do you expect they will really set fire to your mills, Duke?'
Primrose asked.
'I do not know what to expect.'
'But I thought they liked you so much?'
'Those are not the people who are talking of lighting up Morton Hollow. Do you know,' he went on to Wych Hazel, 'it is thought by some parties down there, that my doings are so much in want of explanation that the secret is probably to be found in Satanic influence.'
' "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub," 'said
Prim, with her eyes fixed on the fire.
'And it would not pay to drench the cotton bales on an uncertainty'said Hazel, her eye mentally fixed on one particular bale for which she had a kindness.
'I can't conceive how they should think so, after all, Dane,' said
Primrose.
'It seems unnatural for a man not to take all he can get. Therefore it has not been very difficult, I fancy, to persuade some of the ignorant people that a deep scheme to wrong them must be hid under the apparent plan for righting them. It is easier to believe that than the truth.'
'A little natural envy too,' said Dr. Arthur. 'Just when is this performance to come off?'