y is not so high now as it hath been, I have
enough of the gentleman left to be pleased when good people try me. My
father, Sir Ensor, was better than I in this great element of birth, and
my son Carver is far worse. Aetas parentum, what is it, my boy? I hear
that you have been at a grammar-school.'

'So I have, your worship, and at a very good one; but I only got far
enough to make more tail than head of Latin.'

'Let that pass,' said the Counsellor; 'John, thou art all the wiser.'
And the old man shook his hoary locks, as if Latin had been his ruin.
I looked at him sadly, and wondered whether it might have so ruined me,
but for God's mercy in stopping it.

CHAPTER LII

THE WAY TO MAKE THE CREAM RISE

That night the reverend Counsellor, not being in such state of mind as
ought to go alone, kindly took our best old bedstead, carved in panels,
well enough, with the woman of Samaria. I set him up, both straight
and heavy, so that he need but close both eyes, and keep his mouth just
open; and in the morning he was thankful for all that he could remember.

I, for my part, scarcely knew whether he really had begun to feel
goodwill towards us, and to see that nothing else could be of any use
to him; or whether he was merely acting, so as to deceive us. And it
had struck me, several times, that he had made a great deal more of the
spirit he had taken than the quantity would warrant, with a man so wise
and solid. Neither did I quite understand a little story which Lorna
told me, how that in the night awaking, she had heard, or seemed to
hear, a sound of feeling in her room; as if there had been some
one groping carefully among the things within her drawers or
wardrobe-closet. But the noise had ceased at once, she said, when she
sat up in bed and listened; and knowing how many mice we had, she took
courage and fell asleep again.

After breakfast, the Counsellor (who looked no whit the worse for
schnapps, but even more grave and venerable) followed our Annie into the
dairy, to see how we managed the clotted cream, of which he had eaten
a basinful. And thereupon they talked a little; and Annie thought him a
fine old gentleman, and a very just one; for he had nobly condemned the
people who spoke against Tom Faggus.

'Your honour must plainly understand,' said Annie, being now alone
with him, and spreading out her light quick hands over the pans, like
butterflies, 'that they are brought in here to cool, after being set