" Lor' now, she be a poorly one," remarked one
of the company; "yet she didn't used to look so
when she first come. It must be three years now
that we've seed nothing of her in these parts."

"Ay, it's all that," said Tarn George; "'twas
the very same year as David Lorry returned from
his wanderings. She went away that summer, and
he come back the same autumn. After that we
heard she'd got to live abroad for her health's
sake."

"Well, it's to be hoped she may pull through,"
observed Long John, in a tone of settled conviction
to the contrary, "but they're a fast-dying family
when the fancy takes 'em, all but the old Squire,
that is. Ah, I'm af eared there be too much of her
uncle Ronald in Miss Margery for her to last proper ;
her always had the same scampering way o' going
about, like Master Ronald does now. His father
was the same sort always."

"Ay," said Tarn George, to whom by long
prescriptive right the story belonged. " He was
a hasty man, he was, and sudden in his actions;
else he might have been with us to-day." Tam
paused and drew on the anticipatory sadness of his
audience for inspiration. " 'Twas, I remember," he
went on, " the very day after Scholar Warham took
to him his bride. That next morning Mr. Ronald
was at his shaving, but ne'er a razor could he find



46 SABRINA WARHAM

as 'ud cut; strop how as he would — that's how it
was explained afterwards — 'twas all wooden edge,
so's you may say ; he might as well ha' been shaving
with the strop for all he could make of it. Well,
being a hasty man he loses his temper, and 'Be
danged to 'e,' says he, 'but 'e shall cut.' And
being so much a man of his word, no sooner
said, he was bleeding just as handsome as a stuck

" Did he kill himself, Mr. George ? " breathlessly
inquired the meek youth, who had known all the
circumstances from his childhood.
