‘It war Dorkis, sir, would hev me come; but we knowed nothin’ o’ what’s happened at the Manor.  She’s frightened out on her wits about Miss Sarti, an’ she would hev me saddle Blackbird this mornin’, an’ leave the ploughin’, to come an’ let Sir Christifer an’ my lady know.  P’raps you’ve heared, sir, we don’t keep the Cross Keys at Sloppeter now; a uncle o’ mine died three ‘ear ago, an’ left me a leggicy.  He was bailiff to Squire Ramble, as hed them there big farms on his hans; an’ so we took a little farm o’ forty acres or thereabouts, becos Dorkis didn’t like the public when she got moithered wi’ children.  As pritty a place as iver you see, sir, wi’ water at the back convenent for the cattle.’

‘For God’s sake,’ said Maynard, ’tell me what it is about Miss Sarti.  Don’t stay to tell me anything else now.’

‘Well, sir,’ said Knott, rather frightened by the parson’s vehemence, ‘she come t’ our house i’ the carrier’s cart o’ Wednesday, when it was welly nine o’clock at night; and Dorkis run out, for she heared the cart stop, an’ Miss Sarti throwed her arms roun’ Dorkis’s neck an’ says, “Tek me in, Dorkis, tek me in,” an’ went off into a swoond, like.  An’ Dorkis calls out to me,—­“Dannel,” she calls—­an’ I run out and carried the young miss in, an’ she come roun’ arter a hit, an’ opened her eyes, and Dorkis got her to drink a spoonful o’ rum-an’-water—­we’ve got some capital rum as we brought from the Cross Keys, and Dorkis won’t let nobody drink it.  She says she keeps it for sickness; but for my part, I think it’s a pity to drink good rum when your mouth’s out o’ taste; you may just as well hev doctor’s stuff.  However, Dorkis got her to bed, an’ there she’s lay iver sin’, stoopid like, an’ niver speaks, an’ on’y teks little bits an’ sups when Dorkis coaxes her.  An’ we begun to be frightened, and couldn’t think what had made her come away from the Manor, and Dorkis was afeared there was summat wrong.  So this mornin’ she could hold no longer, an’ would hev no nay but I must come an’ see; an’ so I’ve rode twenty mile upo’ Blackbird, as thinks all the while he’s a-ploughin’, an’ turns sharp roun’, every thirty yards, as if he was at the end of a furrow.  I’ve hed a sore time wi’ him, I can tell you, sir.’

‘God bless you, Knott, for coming!’ said Mr. Gilfil, wringing the old coachman’s hand again.  ’Now go down and have something and rest yourself.  You will stay here to-night, and by-and-by I shall come to you to learn the nearest way to your house.  I shall get ready to ride there immediately, when I have spoken to Sir Christopher.’

In an hour from that time Mr. Gilfil was galloping on a stout mare towards the little muddy village of Callam, five miles beyond Sloppeter.  Once more he saw some gladness in the afternoon sunlight; once more it was a pleasure to see the hedgerow trees flying past him, and to be conscious of a ‘good seat’ while his black Kitty bounded beneath him, and the air whistled to the rhythm of her pace.  Caterina was not dead; he had found her; his love and tenderness and long-suffering seemed so strong, they must recall her to life and happiness.