"I think, dadda," said Miss Meredith, in her most calmly
judicial manner, "that the new man is a born villain, and has
committed some terrible crime. He has a horrid, wicked
face, and he stares just as--as--so that one wants to
shiver."

Mrs. Meredith rose. "Janice," she chided, "thou 't too
young to make thy opinions of the slightest value. Go to thy
spinet, child, and don't let me hear any more such foolish
babble. Charles has a good face, and will make a good
servant."

"I don't care what mommy thinks," Miss Meredith confided
to Tabitha in the parlour, as the one took her seat at an embroidery
frame and the other at the spinet. "I know he's a
bad man, and will end by killing one of us and stealing the
silver and a horse, just as Mr. Vreeland's bond-servant did. He
makes me think of the villain in 'The Tragic History of Sir
Watkins Stokes and Lady Betty Artless.'"


IV
AN APPLE OF DISCORD

In the week following his advent the new servant was the
cause of considerable discussion, and, regrettably, of not
a little controversy, among the members of the household
of Greenwood. The squire maintained that "the fellow is
a bad-tempered, lazy, deceitful rogue, in need of much watching."