Chapter 9

Next day Smilash obtained from his wife a promise that she would
behave towards Agatha as if the letter had given no offence.
Henrietta pleaded as movingly as she could for an immediate
return to their domestic state, but he put her off with endearing
speeches, promised nothing but eternal affection, and sent her
back to London by the twelve o'clock express. Then his
countenance changed; he walked back to Lyvern, and thence to the
chalet, like a man pursued by disgust and remorse. Later in the
afternoon, to raise his spirits, he took his skates and went to
Wickens's pond, where, it being Saturday, he found the ice
crowded with the Alton students and their half-holiday visitors.
Fairholme, describing circles with his habitual air of compressed
hardihood, stopped and stared with indignant surprise as Smilash
lurched past him.

"Is that man here by your permission?" he said to Farmer Wickens,
who was walking about as if superintending a harvest.

"He is here because he likes, I take it," said Wickens
stubbornly. "He is a neighbor of mine and a friend of mine. Is
there any objections to my having a friend on my own pond, seein'
that there is nigh on two or three ton of other people's friends
on it 108 without as much as a with-your-leave or a by-your-
leave."

"Oh, no," said Fairholme, somewhat dashed. "If you are satisfied
there can be no objection."

"I'm glad on it. I thought there mout be."

"Let me tell you," said Fairholme, nettled, "that your landlord
would not be pleased to see him here. He sent one of Sir John's
best shepherds out of the country, after filling his head with
ideas above his station. I heard Sir John speak very warmly about
it last Sunday."

"Mayhap you did, Muster Fairholme. I have a lease of this
land--and gravelly, poor stuff it is--and I am no ways beholden
to Sir John's likings and dislikings. A very good thing too for
Sir John that I have a lease, for there ain't a man in the
country 'ud tak' a present o' the farm if it was free to-morrow.
And what's a' more, though that young man do talk foolish things
about the rights of farm laborers and such-like nonsense, if Sir
John was to hear him layin' it down concernin' rent and
improvements, and the way we tenant farmers is put upon, p'raps
he'd speak warmer than ever next Sunday."

And Wickens, with a smile expressive of his sense of having
retorted effectively upon the parson, nodded and walked away.

Just then Agatha, skating hand in hand with Jane Carpenter, heard
these words in her ear: "I have something very funny to tell you.
Don't look round."

She recognized the voice of Smilash and obeyed.

"I am not quite sure that you will enjoy it as it deserves," he