-and another--and another; and they smoked their pipes for some
short time in silence.

"Talking o' strangers from London," said the sexton, presently--"who do
know anything o' them two chaps that were at church last Sunday? Two
such peacock chaps I never see'd afore in _my_ time--and grinning all
sarvice-time! the heathen!"

"Ay, I'll tell you something of 'em," said Hazel--a big broad-shouldered
farmer, who plucked his pipe out of his mouth with sudden
energy--"They're a brace o' good ones, to be sure, ha, ha! Some week or
ten days ago, as I were a-coming across the field leading into the lane
behind the church, I see'd these same two chaps, and on coming nearer,
(they not seeing me for the hedge,) Lord bless me! would you believe
it?--if they wasn't a-teasing my daughter Jenny, that were coming along
wi' some physic from the doctor for my old woman! One of 'em seemed
a-going to put his arm round her neck and t' other came close to her on
t' other side, a-talking to her and pushing her about." Here a young
farmer, who had but seldom spoken, took his pipe out of his mouth, and
exclaiming, "Lord bless me!" sat listening with his mouth wide open.
"Well," continued the former, "a' came into the road behind 'em, without
their seeing me; and"--(here he stretched out a thick, rigid, muscular
arm, and clinched his teeth)--"a' got hold of each by the collar, and
one of 'em I shook about, and gave him a kick i' the breech that sent
him spinning a yard or two on the road, he clapping his hand behind him,
and crying, to be sure--'You'll smart for this--a good hundred pound
damages!' or summat o' that sort. T' other dropped on his knees, and
begged for mercy; so a' just spit in his face, and flung him under
t' hedge, telling him if he stirred till I were out o' sight, I'd crack
his skull for him; and so I would!" Here the wrathful speaker pushed his
pipe again between his lips, and began puffing away with great energy;
while he who had appeared to take so great an interest in the story, and
who was the very man who had flown to the rescue of Miss Aubrey, when
she seemed on the point of being similarly treated, told that
circumstance exactly as it occurred, amid the silent but excited wonder
of those present--all of whom, at its close, uttered vehement
execrations, and intimated the summary and savage punishment which the
cowardly rascal would have experienced at the hands of each and every
one of them, had they come across him.