Reddin had been looking at her as thoughtfully as his rather maudlin
state allowed.

He had decided that she should stay at Undern and be his mistress.

'You'll be wanting something better than foxes to be mothering one of
these days,' he remarked to the fire, with a half embarrassed, half
jocose air, and a hand on the poker.

'Eh?' said Hazel, who was wondering how long it would take her to learn
to play the music in the corner.

Reddin was annoyed. When one made these arch speeches at such cost of
imagination, they should be received properly.

He got up and went across to Hazel, who had played three consecutive
notes, and was gleeful. He put his hand on hers heavily, and a discord
was wrung from the soft-toned notes that had perhaps known other such
discords long ago.

'Laws! what a din!' said Hazel. 'What for d'you do that, Mr. Reddin?'

Reddin found it harder than ever to repeat his remark, and dropped it.

'What's that brown on your dress?' he asked instead.

'That? Oh, that's from a rabbit as I loosed out'n a trap. It bled
awful.'

'Little sneak, to let it out.'