“Ah, Hodder,” said he, after saluting the young lady, “what’s all this about turning you out of your cottage! What a notion to get into your head!”
“You may call it a notion, Mr Armstrong,” said the old man, “but what about this here piece of paper?” And he produced a blue legal document.
Mr Armstrong put up his eye-glass and read it, with a face which, as Rosalind furtively glanced upwards, seemed inscrutable. When he had finished he coolly put it in his pocket.
“I’ll see to this,” said he. “You choose the best time of day for a walk, Miss Oliphant.”
“Shall you really be able to settle this for Hodder?” replied she.
“I’ve very little doubt about it.”
The old man chuckled ungallantly. “He, he,” said he, “Missy, you ladies are good enough for tea and sugar, but it takes a man to put the likes of me right with my masters.”
Armstrong flushed angrily at this speech and was about to relieve his mind when Rosalind laughingly interposed—
“Poor old Hodder! You’re quite right; I should never have been clever enough to help you. Good-bye. I’m so glad.”
To tell the truth, Miss Oliphant was a good deal more engrossed with what the old man had let drop concerning the lost Roger than with the tutor and his knowledge of the law of landlord and tenant.