ce turned of a reddish-brown in the
cheeks, the warm tint mounting into his forehead, as he looked straight
in the speaker's eyes, and there was a good, manly English ring in his
voice as he said sturdily--

"I didn't know, Mr Ellis, that it was insolent for a man to come in a
straightforward way, and say to the father of the young lady simply--
yes, and humbly--`I love your daughter, sir.'"

"But it is, sir, downright insolence. Recollect what you are, sir, only
an under-gardener living at the bothy on thirty shillings a week."

"I do recollect it, sir, but I don't mean to be an under-gardener
always."

"Oh, indeed," said James Ellis sarcastically, "but poor old Dunton is
not dead yet, and when he does die, Mrs Mostyn is quite as likely to
appoint Daniel Barnett to his place as you, and if she takes my advice,
she'll give the post to neither of you, but get some able, sensible man
from Chiswick."

"But, Mr Ellis--"

"That will do, John Grange," said the owner of that name pompously. "I
know what you are going to say. I am not ashamed of having been only a
gardener once, but I am Mrs Mostyn's bailiff and agent now, sir, and,
so to speak, your master. Let me hear no more of this nonsense, sir.
That will do. But one moment. Have you had the--I mean, does Mary--I
mean, does Miss Ellis know that you were going to speak to me this
evening?"

"No, sir," said John Grange sternly. "I'm only an under-gardener, but
I've heard that it was the proper thing to speak out openly first."

"Then Mary does not know that you--I mean, that you think about her?"

"I hope and believe she does; sir," said the young man warmly, and his
eyes flashed, and a proud, joyful look came into his countenance.

"Then I beg you will not hope and believe anything of the kind, sir,
again. My daughter will do precisely as I wish, and when I part with
her, it will be to see her go to a substantial home. Good-evening!"

James Ellis tucked his walking-stick under his arm, took off his grey
felt hat, drew a red silk handkerchief from the crown, rubbed his bald
head, and made himself look hotter as he strode away, while after
standing and watching him go toward the bailiff's cottage just outside
the park fence at The Hollows on the hill slope, a quarter of a mile
away, the young man uttered a sigh and turned in at an open doorway in a
high wall, whose top was fringed with young shoots of peaches,
nectarines, and apricots, suggestive of the