Then all the women came clamouring
round him with their complaints; and the Corporal frowned, for he loved
a tramp as little as any of them.
"'Tain't true," said the strange woman firmly, "'tain't true. He's but
a poor harmless lad. Sarch mun, if you will, maister; ye won't find
nought."
The Corporal eyed the ragged man keenly. "He looks to be a half-baked
body," he said as if to himself.
"Aye, the poor thing's mazed," bleated out an old man who had hobbled
down to the edge of his garden to look on.
"Has any one missed anything?" the Corporal went on after hearing the
rest of the story. "Who's got any clothes drying to-day?"
There was a long silence and much shaking of heads, till some one said:
"'Twas Mary Mugford was saying that she missed something or 'nother;
stockings, was it, or chimases, two months agone. Where's Mary
Mugford?" But Mary Mugford had discreetly retired, for she saw a new
figure coming up the road, the figure of a lady, tall and slender,
dressed all in black and with a huge black bonnet, from which there
peeped out the oval face with the chestnut curls and the great blue
eyes, which we saw in the picture at Bracefort Hall, with the name of
Lady Eleanor underneath it. Dick and Elsie ran to her at once, and the
Corporal shortening the horse's halter in one hand, drew himself up,
saluted, and made his report.
Pages:
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29