“Stop!” he said imperiously, putting his hand upon Mrs. Yeobright’s arm.  “We are regularly besieged.  There are fifty of them out there if there’s one.  You stay in this room with Thomasin; I’ll go out and face them.  You must stay now, for my sake, till they are gone, so that it may seem as if all was right.  Come, Tamsie dear, don’t go making a scene—­we must marry after this; that you can see as well as I. Sit still, that’s all—­and don’t speak much.  I’ll manage them.  Blundering fools!”

He pressed the agitated girl into a seat, returned to the outer room and opened the door.  Immediately outside, in the passage, appeared Grandfer Cantle singing in concert with those still standing in front of the house.  He came into the room and nodded abstractedly to Wildeve, his lips still parted, and his features excruciatingly strained in the emission of the chorus.  This being ended, he said heartily, “Here’s welcome to the newmade couple, and God bless ’em!”

“Thank you,” said Wildeve, with dry resentment, his face as gloomy as a thunderstorm.

At the Grandfer’s heels now came the rest of the group, which included Fairway, Christian, Sam the turf-cutter, Humphrey, and a dozen others.  All smiled upon Wildeve, and upon his tables and chairs likewise, from a general sense of friendliness towards the articles as well as towards their owner.

“We be not here afore Mrs. Yeobright after all,” said Fairway, recognizing the matron’s bonnet through the glass partition which divided the public apartment they had entered from the room where the women sat.  “We struck down across, d’ye see, Mr. Wildeve, and she went round by the path.”

“And I see the young bride’s little head!” said Grandfer, peeping in the same direction, and discerning Thomasin, who was waiting beside her aunt in a miserable and awkward way.  “Not quite settled in yet—­well, well, there’s plenty of time.”

Wildeve made no reply; and probably feeling that the sooner he treated them the sooner they would go, he produced a stone jar, which threw a warm halo over matters at once.

“That’s a drop of the right sort, I can see,” said Grandfer Cantle, with the air of a man too well-mannered to show any hurry to taste it.

“Yes,” said Wildeve, “’tis some old mead.  I hope you will like it.”

“O ay!” replied the guests, in the hearty tones natural when the words demanded by politeness coincide with those of deepest feeling.  “There isn’t a prettier drink under the sun.”

“I’ll take my oath there isn’t,” added Grandfer Cantle.  “All that can be said against mead is that ’tis rather heady, and apt to lie about a man a good while.  But tomorrow’s Sunday, thank God.”

“I feel’d for all the world like some bold soldier after I had had some once,” said Christian.

“You shall feel so again,” said Wildeve, with condescension, “Cups or glasses, gentlemen?”

“Well, if you don’t mind, we’ll have the beaker, and pass ’en round; ’tis better than heling it out in dribbles.”