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.
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