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Mr. Tellwright sat near the window of the back parlour, reading the paper. Twilight was at hand. He lowered his head as Mynors entered with Agnes in train, so as to see over his spectacles, which were half-way down his nose.

‘How d’ye do, Mr. Mynors? I was just going to begin my supper. I don’t wait, you know,’ and he glanced at the table.

‘Quite right,’ said Mynors, ‘so long as you wouldn’t eat it all. Would he have eaten it all, Agnes, do you think?’ Agnes pressed her head against Mynors’ arm and laughed shyly. The old man sardonically chuckled.

Anna, who was still in the passage, wondered what could be on the table. If it was only the usual morsel of cheese she felt that she should expire of mortification. She peeped: the cheese was at one end, and at the other a joint of beef, scarcely touched.

‘Nay, nay,’ said Tellwright, as if he had been engaged some seconds upon the joke, ‘I’d have saved ye the bone.’

Anna went upstairs to take off her hat, and immediately Agnes flew after her. The child was breathless with news.