“I will settle all that,” said Maryllia—­“You must leave everything to me.  In the meantime,”—­and she glanced at Spruce,—­then appealingly turned to Bainton,—­“Will you try and make your friend understand an order I want to give him?  Or shall I ask Mrs. Spruce to come and speak to him?”

“Lord love ye, he’ll be sharper to hear me than his wife, Miss, beggin’ yer pardon,” said Bainton, with entire frankness.  “He’s too accustomed to her jawin’ an’ wouldn’t get a cleat impression like.  Spruce!” And he uplifted his voice in a roar that made the old rafters of the hall ring.  “Get ready to take Miss Vancourt’s orders, will ye?”

Spruce was instantly on the alert, and put his hand to his ear.

“Tell him, please,” said Maryllia, still addressing Bainton, “that he is to meet the agent as arranged at the appointed place to-morrow morning; but that he is not to take any ropes or axes or any men with him.  He is simply to say that by Miss Vancourt’s orders the trees are not to be touched.”

These words Bainton dutifully bellowed into Spruce’s semi-closed organs of hearing.  A look first of astonishment and then of fear came over the simple fellow’s face.

“I’m afraid,” he at last faltered, “that the lady does not know what a hard man Mr. Leach is; he’ll as good as kill me if I go there alone to him!”

“Lord love ye, man, you won’t be alone!” roared Bainton,—­“There’s plenty in the village ‘ull take care o’ that!”

“Say to him,” continued Maryllia steadily, noting the forester’s troubled countenance, “he must now remember that I am mistress here, and that my orders, even if given at the last moment, are to be obeyed.”

“That’s it!” chuckled Josey Letherbarrow, knocking his stick on the ground in a kind of ecstasy,—­“That’s it!  Things ain’t goin’ to be as they ’as been now the Squire’s little gel is ’ome!  That’s it!” And he nodded emphatically.  “Give a reskil rope enough an’ he’ll ‘ang hisself by the neck till he be dead, and the Lord ha’ mercy on his soul!”

Maryllia smiled, watching all her three quaint visitors with a sensation of mingled interest and whimsical amusement.

“D’ye hear?  You’re to tell Leach,” shouted Bainton, “that Miss Vancourt is mistress ’ere, and her orders is to be obeyed at the last moment!  Which you might ha’ understood without splittin’ my throat to tell ye, if ye had a little more sense, which, lackin’, ’owever, can’t be ’elped.  What are ye afeard of, eh?”

“Mr. Leach is a hard man,” continued Spruce, anxiously glancing at Maryllia; “He would lose me my place if he could—­:” 

Maryllia heard, and privately decided that the person to lose his place would be Leach himself.  “It is quite exciting!” she thought; “I was wondering a while ago what I should do to amuse myself in the country, and here I am called upon at once to remedy wrongs and settle village feuds!  Nothing could be more novel and delightful!” Aloud, she said,—­