Page:Joan, the curate.djvu/121

Rh "'Tis a vastly pretty view you have from hence," remarked the brigadier, in the course of making himself agreeable to the knot of drovers, laborers, and nondescript wanderers who stood within the inn doors, watching the soldiers.

The landlord was the only person bold enough to answer the smart soldier—

"Ay, sir; 'tis, as you say, a pretty view."

"What call you that building yonder? Is't a gentleman's seat, or what?"

"Nay, sir, 'tis no gentleman's seat now; though methinks I've heard 'twas a considerable place once on a time. 'Tis but a farmhouse that they call Rede Hall."

"Rede Hall—eh? And what sort of folk are they that live there now?"

"'Tis kept by an old farmer, sir, that lives there with his wife, his son, and his daughter. They be quiet folks, sir, and I know nowt else about 'em," said the landlord, who knew perfectly well on what business the brigadier had come, as he remembered hearing of a similar expedition which had come that way not many days before.

"Quiet! Ay, but they be main queer folks," piped out an old man, who was enjoying his