“Yes, yes, I do.  We’ve been friends all our lives—­all our lives.  I like him well, and am going to marry his sister—­only I see his faults, and he sees mine—­that’s all.”

“Take my advice and shut your eyes to his faults.  That’s the best way if you are marrying into his family.  I’ve got cause to think ill enough of the scamp, as you know and everybody knows; but life’s too short for remembering ill turns.”

A weight rolled off Clement’s heart.  For a moment he had feared that the man knew something; but now he began to suspect Grimbal’s question to be what in reality it was—­casual interrogation, without any shadow of knowledge behind it.  Hicks therefore breathed again and trusted that his own emotion had not been very apparent.  Then, taking the water, he shot a thin shower into the air, an operation often employed to hasten swarming, and possibly calculated to alarm the bees into apprehension of rain.

“Do wasps ever get into the hives?” asked Mr. Grimbal abruptly.

“Aye, they do; and wax-moths and ants, and even mice.  These things eat the honey and riddle and ruin the comb.  Then birds eat the bees, and spiders catch them.  Honey-bees do nothing but good that I can see, yet Nature ’s pleased to fill the world with their enemies.  Queen and drone and the poor unsexed workers—­all have their troubles; and so has the little world of the hive.  Yet during the few weeks of a bee’s life he does an amount of work beyond imagination to guess at.”

“And still finds time to steal from the hives of his fellows?”

“Why, yes, if the sweets are exposed and can be tasted for nothing.  Most of us might turn robbers on the same terms.  Now I can take them, and a splendid swarm, too—­finest I’ve seen this year.”

The business of getting the glittering bunch of bees into a hive was then proceeded with, and soon Clement had shaken the mass into a big straw butt, his performance being completely successful.  In less than half an hour all was done, and Hicks began to remove his veil and shake a bee or two off the rim of his hat.

John Grimbal rubbed his cheek, where a bee had stung him under the eye, and regarded Hicks thoughtfully.

“If you happen to want work at any time, it might be within my power to find you some here,” he said, handing the bee-master five shillings.  Clement thanked his employer and declared he would not forget the offer; he then departed, and John Grimbal returned to his farm.

CHAPTER VII

AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE

Billy Blee, who has appeared thus far as a disinterested spectator of other people’s affairs, had yet his own active and personal interests in life.  Them he pursued, at odd times, and in odd ways, with admirable pertinacity; and as a crisis is now upon him and chance knits the outcome of it into the main fabric of this narrative, Billy and his actions command attention.