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Mrs. Ellicott could not regret having told Kathleen the truth, for she became much more gentle for a time and watchful45 over herself. An incident which occurred the same evening made her specially42 hopeful on the girl's account.
As Mountain was returning to his cottage, after a visit to the stables, he was accosted46 by a smart groom47, whose face was strange to him, but whose livery showed that he was in the service of Captain Torrance.
"This is Little Hollingsby, isn't it?" asked the man.
"Not that I know of," replied Mountain.
"Why, don't you live here?" pointing to the Hall.
"I live there!" returned Mountain, indicating his humbler dwelling48 by pointing his thumb at it.
"Oh, come now, you know what I mean well enough! I have a message and something else for Miss Mountford, and I was told she lived at Little Hollingsby."
"There is no place o' that name," responded Mountain, looking as obtuse49 as he knew how.
"Can you tell me which is Miss Mountford's house?"
"I can."
"Then do, if you please."
"Since you, ask me in a mannerly way I will. That is the house, at least that is the way that leads to the back of it. I suppose you don't want the front entrance," replied Mountain.
"Why, you said this was not Little Hollingsby."
"No more it is. There is no place o' that name, as I've told you once already."
"You needn't be so short-tempered when I ask you a civil question!" retorted the groom indignantly. "What do you call this house, then?"
"It isn't what I call it, but the house is Hollingsby Hall, as everybody hereabouts knows, or ought to, by this time." The groom gave a prolonged whistle.
"Well, I never. Anybody would have thought that big place of the earl's was the Hall, not this—"
"I'd have you to know, young man," interrupted Mountain, in high indignation at the contemptuous stress laid on the last word, "I'd have you to know that Hollingsby Hall has been this place, and called nothing else for ages before that place of the earl's, which is as ugly as it is big, was thought of. Ay, or an earl to live in it, for the title and Hollingsby are new alike, though the village is old enough."
"Well, how was I to know? I have only been at the captain's place for a month or so, and I can't remember ages back, if you can!" retorted the groom.
"Who said I could? but let me tell you it's matter of history about the Hall, and the Mountfords, who used to have a bigger house than the earl's, but they pulled it down and built this, as better suited to their means. Not like some people as shall be nameless, that waste and spend all before them, and soon won't have a pigsty50 to call their own."
Mountain spoke51 severely52, but looked triumphant53, as if he had "about settled this puppy of a groom from Monk's How."
But the puppy in question was getting impatient, and not knowing to what lengths the speaker might go, he ventured to interrupt Mountain's tirade54.
"It's all very interesting, no doubt; but as the family are strangers to me, and I've no partickler taste for history, I'll not trouble you to tell me any more. And as to people spending themselves out of house and home, and running into debt, I shan't put myself out for them. I shall manage to find a place, I dare say, and we shall neither of us be asked to pay anybody's debts but our own—if we have any. What I want to know is, how to deliver my message, and cetera, to Miss Mountford?"
"That's an easy matter, now you know your way to the back door."
"You don't mean to say that Miss Mountford will come to the back door to answer it, do you?" sneered55 the groom, who was waxing more and more indignant at Mountain's mode of replying.
"No, I don't. Neither would she answer the Hall door, if you went to that. She keeps servants enough to take the messages which other people's servants bring. One of 'em will take yours, if you give 'em a chance;" and turning on his heel, Mountain marched rapidly towards his own dwelling, without waiting for more words.
