the Queen's shilling. If I were once away I should not be always
thinking of her. I know I am a fool to let a girl trouble me so,
but I can't help it. If I stay here I know that I shall do mischief
either to her or to someone else. I felt like doing it last month
when she was over at that business at Squire Carthew's--he is just
such another one as Captain Mallett, only he is a bad landlord,
while ours is a good one. What made him think of asking all his own
tenantry, and a good many of us round, and getting up a cricket
match and a dance on the grass is more than I can say. He never did
such a thing before in all the ten years since he became master
there. They all noticed how he carried on with Martha, and how she
seemed to like it. It was the talk of everyone there. If I had not
gone away I should have made a fool of myself, though I have no
right to interfere with her, and her father and mother were there
and seemed in no way put out.

"I will go away and have a look at that lot of young cattle I
bought the other day. I don't know that I ever saw a more likely
lot."

It was dark when George returned. On his way home he took a path
that passed near the house whence he had turned away so angrily a
few hours before. It was not the nearest way, but somehow he always
took it, even at hours when there was no chance of his getting the
most distant sight of Martha.

Presently he stopped suddenly, for from behind the wall that
bounded the kitchen garden of the farm he heard voices. A man was
speaking.