ildren with some perplexity in her good-humoured
face. She did not want to disturb Andrew just now, whose temper was
seldom ruffled except when he was at his accounts. On the other hand,
Dennis and Maisie were both fixing such imploring eyes upon her that she
could not bear to say "No."

"Well, then," she said, "you must just go and knock at the door and ask
if you may go in. But _don't_ ye stay long, my dear, else Andrew'll be
vexed, and it's I who'll bear the blame."

The office, where Mr Solace had retired to struggle with his accounts,
was not a very business-like apartment. It was a small room with a door
opening into the stable-yard, full of a great variety of articles, such
as boots, whips, guns, walking-sticks, and pipes. In the window there
was a big writing-table, covered with account-books and papers, and it
was here that the farm men came to be paid on Saturday night. From his
seat Mr Solace could see all that went on in the stable-yard, and could
shout out orders to the men as they passed across it without leaving his
chair. That was in summer, but now the window was shut and the room was
quite full of the fumes of Mr Solace's pipe, from which he was puffing
angry clouds of tobacco, as he frowned over a great leather-bound book
in front of him.

He was a man of about fifty, with iron-grey hair and very blue eyes
which looked keenly out under bushy brows. They were kindly eyes, but
they were eyes which could fix themselves commandingly on man or beast,
and seemed used to having their commands obeyed. They were set in a
face so bronzed and reddened by an outdoor life, that this colour was
all the more striking, except to old Sally, who spoke lightly of them
compared to others she "minded" in the family. "They weren't nothing at
all to what old Mr Solace's was," she said. "They _were_ blue, if you
like."

Biting the top of his quill pen, and stamping his foot, when the figures
were too much for his patience, the farmer had just travelled nearly up
a long column, when a loud knock was heard at his door.

At first he only grunted impatiently, for he knew that if he let go his
calculation for an instant, he was a lost man, and would have to add it
all up again. But almost immediately the knock was loudly repeated.

"Come in," he shouted, flinging down his pen and turning angrily towards
the door. His gaze was directed to the height of a full-grown person,
and he lowered it hastily to the level