'What have you heard? Nothing good, I dare say. It makes my blood
boil within me!'

'O, nothing bad,' said she assuringly. 'Just a word now and then.'

'Now, come, tell me, there's a dear. I don't like to be crossed.
It shall be a sacred secret between us. Come, now!'

Anne was embarrassed, and her smile was uncomfortable. 'I shall not
tell you,' she said at last.

'There it is again!' said the yeoman, throwing himself into a
despair. 'I shall soon begin to believe that my name is not worth
sixpence about here!'

'I tell you 'twas nothing against you,' repeated Anne.

'That means it might have been for me,' said Festus, in a mollified
tone. 'Well, though, to speak the truth, I have a good many faults,
some people will praise me, I suppose. 'Twas praise?'

'It was.'

'Well, I am not much at farming, and I am not much in company, and I
am not much at figures, but perhaps I must own, since it is forced
upon me, that I can show as fine a soldier's figure on the Esplanade
as any man of the cavalry.'

'You can,' said Anne; for though her flesh crept in mortal terror of