‘Look here, brother James,’ he said; ’if we drive the young scamp to desperation, there’s no telling what he will do.  Ten to one if he does not go and tell a string of lies to some of the farmers about here, or perhaps to the parson at Longville, and they may make an unpleasant disturbance.  Nobody knows and nobody cares about him as it is; but he is a determined young fellow, or I’m mistaken.  Better keep him at work under your own eye, and make the place too hot for him by degrees.  Before long you will catch him poaching with his dog, and if he is let off for a time or two because of his youth, and goes at it again, we can make out a pretty case of juvenile depravity, without any character from his employer, you know; and so he will be sent out of the way, and boarded at the expense of the country for a few years or so.’

‘Well,’ said the master, ’I’ll try him once again.  If he’d go out quietly, nobody else has any claim upon the cottage; and I want to set to work there quickly.’

So when Stephen entered the office with trembling limbs and a very pale face under its dusky covering, it happened that he met with a very different reception to what he expected.  The master sat behind a small counter, upon which lay Stephen’s twelve shillings, the only little heap of money left; and as he gathered them nervously into his hand, he wondered if this would be the last time.  But his master’s face was not more threatening than usual; and he muttered his ‘Thank you, sir,’ and was turning away with a feeling of great relief, when Mr. Wyley’s harsh voice brought him back again, trembling more than ever.

‘Have you thought any more of my offer, Fern?’ he asked.  ’I shouldn’t mind, as you are an orphan, and have two sisters depending upon you, if I made the ten pounds into fifteen; and you may leave the money at interest with me till you are older.’

‘And I’ve been thinking, Stephen,’ added Thomas Wyley, who sat at a high desk checking the accounts, ’that, as you seem set against being separated, instead of taking your grandfather into the House, I’d get him two shillings a week allowed him out of it; and that would pay the rent of a nice two-roomed cottage down in Botfield, close to your work.  Come, that would make all of you comfortable.’

‘You should bear in mind, Stephen,’ said the master, ’that the place does not of right belong to you at all; and the lord of the manor is coming to shoot over the estate in September; and then I shall have orders to remove you by force.  So you had better take our offer.’

‘Please, sir,’ said Stephen, bowing respectfully, ’don’t be angered with me, but I can’t go from what I said afore.  Father told me never to give up Fern’s Hollow; and maybe he’d hear tell of it in heaven if I broke my word to him.  I can’t do it, sir.’

‘Well, wilful will have his way,’ said Mr. Thomas, nodding at the master; and as neither of them addressed Stephen again, he left the office, amazed to find that he was not forbidden to return to work on the following Monday.