pounds, well knowing the price ran about three hundred too high. In fact,
Jack told him so; and then Bewes fetched his whisky bottle and they went
at it again; and then they closed, and a good bit to farmer's
astonishment, Cobley fetched a cheque-book out of his pocket and wrote a
cheque on the spot as though to the manner born.

Four hundred and seventy-five pounds he paid, and as Nicholas Bewes
confessed to Jack, 'twas only the money in his pocket put enough iron into
him to stand up to his son, afterwards.

But what Nicholas might have to say to Richard didn't trouble Cobley over
much. He got his receipt and Bewes promised the deed should be drawn when
he saw his lawyer to Moreton next market-day.

So they parted tolerable good friends, and it was understood between 'em
that Jack should tell Mrs. Pedlar how things stood at his own time and
nobody should be told who the purchaser was.

It happened, however, that he did not tell Jane after all, for, going down
from Bewes in the red of the sunset, Jack fell in with Milly Boon, whose
gait was set for the farm. He passed her a good evening, then marked a
world of woe in her face and the smudge of tears upon it, clear to see in
the last of the light, so he bade her stand a moment and tell him why for
she was going up the hill.

"'Tis private business, Mr. Cobley," she said, making to pass on; but he
heard by the flutter in her speech she'd been weeping, and in his slow way
held her back while he thought it out. He was got to know her tolerable
well by now, so he commanded her to bide and listen.