Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/26

 THE COMING OF THE KING'S MEN

EANTIME the little sexton had arrived, breathless and panting, at the inn. Here he was accosted with a breezy, "Hello, Mr. Mipps, where's the Doctor?" The speaker was Denis Cobtree, the only son of the squire.

This young worthy of some eighteen summers was being prepared in the paths of learning by the vicar with a view to his entering the university; but Denis, like his father before him, cared very little for books, and the moment the Doctor's back was turned, off he would slip to talk to some weather-beaten seaman, or to attempt a flirtation with Imogene, the dark-haired girl who assisted the landlady at the inn.

"Just been talkin' to the vicar on the sea-wall," said Mipps, hurrying past into the parlour and calling loudly for Mrs. Waggetts.

"What do you want?" said that good lady, issuing from the kitchen with a teapot in her hand. Tea was the luxury she indulged in.

"A word," answered the sexton, pushing her back into the kitchen and shutting the door behind him.