door, not without annoyance; for, unlike
his wife, _his_ joy-tithe was not yet due.

"What do you want, my good fellow?"

"Some o' th' Harpers."

"Indeed! Are you after work? You don't look like one of the
clay-cutters. Where do you come from?"

"I be Darset, I be; but I comed fra Carnwall."

"From where?" asked Agatha, puzzled by the provincialism, and attracted
at once by the man's intelligent face, and by a keen, misery-stricken,
hungry look, which she had truly called "wolfish."

"I be comed fra the miners in Carnwall," reiterated the man, raising
his voice threateningly. "They sent I back to Darset to see some o' th'
Harpers."

"You must go in, Agatha; it is cold. I cannot have you standing here.
Go--quick." And Agatha was astonished to see how pallid and eager her
husband looked, and how anxious he seemed to get her out of the way.

"No, thank you. I am not cold at all. I want to hear this man. Perhaps
he is one of the poor miners Miss Valery spoke of at Wheal--what was
it?"

"I be comed fra Wheal Caroline, Missus, and I do want one o' th'
Harpers. There be the old 'un at the window! Thick's the man for we."

And he was hurrying off to the bow-window of the Squire's room, which
was alongside of the conservatory. But Nathanael called him back
imperatively.

"Stay, friend. My father has nothing to do with the mines--it is I. I'll
speak to you presently.--Some business of Anne's," he explained hastily
to his wife. "Leave us, dear."

"Why do you make me go in? I want to hear about the poor miners; I want
to help them, as well as Anne Valery."

"Do'ee help we, Missus!" implored the man, softened by a woman's kind
looks. "Do'ee give we some'at to keep 'un fra starving!"

"Starving!" cried Agatha in horror. And even her husband's anxiety
was for the moment quelled in the deep pity which overspread his
countenance.

"It be nigh that, I tell'ee. Us be no cheats--there be other folk as has
cheated we. Fine grand folk as knew nowt o' the mines, but shut 'un up,
and paid no money."

"How wicked!"

"But I be come to find 'un out," cried the man fiercely, as his eye lit
on Nathanael. "For I do know thick fine folk. And I tell'ee"--

"Silence! you forget you are speaking before a lady. Wait for me, and I
will talk with you."

"Will'ee, Mister? Don't'ee cheat, now!" said the miner, with a rude
attempt at a sneer.

The young man's cheek flushed, but he said very quietly--

"I promise you, I will speak