little gracious again now, lest his mood should turn from
sentimental to quarrelsome--no impossible contingency with the
yeoman-soldier, as her quick perception had noted.

'Well, well; this idling won't do for me, folks,' he at last said,
to Anne's relief. 'I ought not to have come in, by rights; but I
heard you enjoying yourselves, and thought it might be worth while
to see what you were up to; I have several miles to go before
bedtime;' and stretching his arms, lifting his chin, and shaking his
head, to eradicate any unseemly curve or wrinkle from his person,
the yeoman wished them an off-hand good-night, and departed.

'You should have teased him a little more, father,' said the
trumpet-major drily. 'You could soon have made him as crabbed as a
bear.'

'I didn't want to provoke the chap--'twasn't worth while. He came
in friendly enough,' said the gentle miller without looking up.

'I don't think he was overmuch friendly,' said John.

''Tis as well to be neighbourly with folks, if they be not quite
onbearable,' his father genially replied, as he took off his coat to
go and draw more ale--this periodical stripping to the shirt-sleeves
being necessitated by the narrowness of the cellar and the smeary
effect of its numerous cobwebs upon best clothes.

Some of the guests then spoke of Fess Derriman as not such a bad
young man if you took him right and humoured him; others said that
he was nobody's enemy but his own; and the elder ladies mentioned in