rmer made no reply, and his daughter smiled contentedly as she
heard him stamping about in the larder. He made but a poor meal, and
then, refusing point-blank to assist Annie in moving the piano, went and
smoked a very reflective pipe in the garden.

Lord Fairmount arrived the following day on foot from the station, and
after acknowledging the farmer's salute with a distant nod requested him
to send a cart for his luggage. He was a tall, good-looking young man,
and as he stood in the hall languidly twisting his mustache Miss Rose
deliberately decided upon his destruction.

"These your daughters?" he inquired, carelessly, as he followed his host
into the parlor.

"One of 'em is, my lord; the other is my servant," replied the farmer.

"She's got your eyes," said his lordship, tapping the astonished Annie
under the chin; "your nose too, I think."

[Illustration: She's got your eyes 074]

"That's my servant," said the farmer, knitting his brows at him.

"Oh, indeed!" said his lordship, airily.

He turned round and regarded Jane, but, although she tried to meet him
half-way by elevating her chin a little, his audacity failed him and the
words died away on his tongue. A long silence followed, broken only by
the ill-suppressed giggles of Annie, who had retired to the kitchen.

"I trust that we shall make your lordship comfortable," said Miss Rose.

"I hope so, my good girl," was the reply. "And now will you show me my
room?"

Miss Rose led the way upstairs and threw open the door; Lord Fairmount,
pausing on the threshold, gazed at it disparagingly.

"Is this the best room you have?" he inquired, stiffly.

"Oh, no," said Miss Rose, smiling; "father's room is much better than
this. Look here."

She threw open another door and, ignoring a gesticulating figure which
stood in the hall below, regarded him anxiously. "If you would prefer
father's room he would be delighted for you to have it Delighted."

"Yes, I will have this one," said Lord Fairmount, entering. "Bring me up
some hot water, please, and clear these boots and leggings out."

Miss Rose tripped downstairs and, bestowing a witching smile upon her
sire, waved away his request for an explanation and hastened into the
kitchen, whence Annie shortly afterwards emerged with the water.

It was with something of a shock that the farmer discovered that he had
to wait for his dinner while his lordship had luncheon. That meal,
under his daughter's management, too