"Well, if you must know, it's me--Humphrey."
"Go round to the side door, and come to my room," said Mrs Lloyd, in a
low, angry voice.
Humphrey was heard to go rustling through the laurels, as Mrs Lloyd
exclaimed--
"Go up to your room, Miss, this instant; and don't you stir till I call
you down."
Shivering with fear and shame, Polly made her escape to run up to her
room, throw herself on the bed, and cry as if her heart would break,
just missing Humphrey, who came round without loss of time.
"Now," said Mrs Lloyd, as soon as the door was closed, "what have you
to say to this?"
"Only that it was my fault," said Humphrey--"all my fault; so don't
blame the poor little girl. It was all my doing."
"Now, look here, Humphrey Lloyd," exclaimed the housekeeper, speaking in
a low, angry voice, "you like your place here?"
"Yes, if you and he could treat me a little better."
"Never mind about that," said Mrs Lloyd.
"It's no use to mind," said Humphrey, bitterly. "If I had been a dog
instead of your own flesh and blood, you couldn't have treated me
worse."
"Treated you badly!" exclaimed Mrs Lloyd; "haven't you been well fed,
educated, and placed in a good situation?"
"Yes--all that," said Humphrey. "And for reward you fly in my face.
Now, look here, Humphrey. If you so much as look at that girl again,
let alone speak to her, off you go. You shall not stay on the premises
another day."
"Well," said Humphrey, "that's pleasant; but all the same I don't see
what power you have in the matter, so long as I satisfy the young
master."
"Then just content yourself with satisfying your young master, sir, and
mind, that girl's not for you, so let's have no more of it. Now go."
"But look here," said Humphrey. "I told you to go," said Mrs Lloyd,
pointing. "Your place is at the keeper's lodge. Go and stay there, and
don't go thinking you can influence Master Dick--Mr Trevor--to keep
you, because even if you could, the girl should go away, and you should
see her no more. Now go."
"Poor little lassie," muttered Humphrey, as, in obedience to Mrs
Lloyd's pointing finger, he slowly left the room, walked heavily along
the passage, and out into the dark evening, to pass round the house, and
cross the lawn, where he could see through the open windows into the
dining-room.
"Nice for me," he muttered. "Forbidden to go near her--girl in my own
station. What does the old woman mean?"
He stood gazing in at the merry, laughing party of young, well-dressed
men.
"Nice to be you," he thought; "plenty of money to spend; people to do
all you tell them to; nobody to thwart you. But I wonder what the old
lady means."
He laughed to himself directly after, in a low, bitter fashion.
"No, not so bad as that," he said, half aloud. "She's ambitious, and
scheming, but that would be going too far."
Volume 2, Chapter II.