handsome like. Gentlefolk such as yeu needn't go on
working allays like uz. If so be yeu be a going, Mr. Tappitt, I hope
yeu and me'll part friendly. We've been together a sight o'
years;--too great a sight for uz to part unfriendly."

Mr. Tappitt admitted the argument, shook hands with the man, and then
of course took him into his immediate confidence with more warmth
than he would have done had there been no quarrel between them. And
I think he found some comfort in this. He walked about the premises
with Worts, telling him much that was true, and some few things that
were not strictly accurate. For instance, he said that he had made
up his mind to leave the place, whereas that action of decisive
resolution which we call making up our minds had perhaps been done by
Mrs. Tappitt rather than by him. But Worts took all these assertions
with an air of absolute belief which comforted the brewer. Worts was
very wise in his discretion on that day, and threw much oil on the
troubled waters; so that Tappitt when he left him bade God bless him,
and expressed a hope that the old place might still thrive for his
sake.

"And for your'n too, master," said Worts, "for yeu'll allays have the
best egg still. The young master, he'll only be a working for yeu."

There was comfort in this thought; and Tappitt, when he went into his
dinner, was able to carry himself like a man.

The tidings which had reached Mrs. Tappitt as to Rowan having been
seen on that evening walking on the Cawston road with his face
towards Bragg's End were true. On that morning Mr. Honyman had come
to him, and his career in life was at once settled for him.

"Mr. Tappitt is quite in time, Mr. Honyman," he had said. "But he
would not have been in time this day week unless he had consented
to pay for what work had been already done; for I had determined to
begin at once."

"The truth is, Mr. Rowan, you step into an uncommon good thing; but
Mr. Tappitt is tired of the work, and glad to give it up."

Thus the matter was arranged between them, and before nightfall
everybody in Baslehurst knew that Tappitt and Rowan had come to
terms, and that Tappitt was to retire upon a pension. There was some
little discrepancy as to the amount of Tappitt's annuity, the liberal
faction asserting that he was to receive two thousand a year, and
those of the other side cutting him down to two hundred.

On the evening of that day--in the cool of the evening--Luke Rowan
sauntere