"
"Everybody knows it, Mr. Masters."
"Go among them as if nobody knew it. I'll warrant that nobody will
speak of it"
"I don't think any one of 'em would dare to do that," said Larry
brandishing his stick.
"Where is it that the hounds are Larry?"
"Here; at the old kennel."
"Go out and let her see that you have taken her advice. She is
there at the house, and she will recognise you in the park.
Remember that she sends her love to you, and bids you be a man.
And, Larry, come in and see us sometimes. The time will come, I
don't doubt, when you and the squire will be fast friends."
"Never!"
"You do not know what time can do. I'll just go back now because he
is to come to me this afternoon. Try and bear up and remember that
it is she who bids you be a man." The attorney got upon his pony
and rode back to Dillsborough.
Larry who had come back to the yard to see his friend off, returned
by the road into the fields, and went wandering about for a while
in Dillsborough Wood. "Bid him be a man!" Wasn't he a man? Was it
disgraceful to him as a man to be broken-hearted, because a woman
would not love him? If he were provoked he would fight,--perhaps
better than ever, because he would be reckless. Would he not be
ready to fight Reginald Morton with any weapon which could be
thought of for the possession of Mary Masters? If she were in
danger would he not go down into the deep, or through fire to save
her? Were not his old instincts of honesty and truth as strong in
him as ever? Did manliness require that his heart should be
invulnerable? If so he doubted whether he could ever be a man.
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