ng to be friendly. It
went towards him, stretching out a tender sniffing nose, and he put
his hand in the pocket of his rough coat and gave it something to eat.
Afterwards he went to the gap in the fence and drew the wires together,
fastening them with other wire, which he also took out of the coat
pocket.

"He is not afraid of making himself useful," thought Betty. "And the
animals know him. He is not as bad as he looks."

She lingered a moment watching him, and then walked towards the gate
through which she had entered. He glanced up as she neared him.

"I don't see your carriage," he said. "Your man is probably round the
trees."

"I walked," answered Betty. "I had heard of this place and wanted to see
it."

He stood up, putting his wire back into his pocket.

"There is not much to be seen from the road," he said. "Would you like
to see more of it?"

His manner was civil enough, but not the correct one for a servant.
He did not say "miss" or touch his cap in making the suggestion. Betty
hesitated a moment.

"Is the family at home?" she inquired.

"There is no family but--his lordship. He is off the place."

"Does he object to trespassers?"

"Not if they are respectable and take no liberties."

"I am respectable, and I shall not take liberties," said Miss
Vanderpoel, with a touch of hauteur. The truth was that she had spent a
sufficient number of years on the Continent to have become familiar with
conventions which led her not to approve wholly of his bearing. Perhaps
he had lived long enough in America to forget such conventions and to
lack something which centuries of custom had decided should belong
to his class. A certain suggestion of rough force in the man rather
attracted her, and her slight distaste for his manner arose from the
realisation that a gentleman's servant who did not address his superiors
as was required by custom was not doing his work in a finished way. In
his place she knew her own demeanour would have been finished.

"If you are sure that Lord Mount Dunstan would not object to my walking
about, I should like very much to see the gardens and the house," she
said. "If you show them to me, shall I be interfering with your duties?"

"No," he answered, and then for the first time rather glumly added,
"miss."

"I am interested," she said, as they crossed the grass together,
"because places like this are quite new to me. I have never been in
England before."

"There are not many p