Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/64

 lodger girded up his robe de chambre with its red silk cord and advanced with decision through the chaos of birch and hickory. A struggle, sharp but brief, and he turned to find Miss Gould offering a coil of clothes-rope with which to bind the conquered, whom conflict had sobered, for he made no resistance.

“What do you mean by such idiotic actions?” the squire of dames demanded, as he freed the maddened Henry from his durance vile in the woodhouse and confronted the red-faced man, who had not uttered a word.

He cast a baffled glance at Miss Gould and a triumphant smile at Henry before replying. Then, disdaining the lady’s righteous indignation and the hired man’s threatening gestures, he faced the gentleman in the scarlet robe and spoke as man to man.

“Gov’nor,” he said with somewhat thickened speech, “I come here an’ I asked for a meal. An’ she tol’ me would