Page:Under the greenwood tree (1872 Volume 1).pdf/184

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170
UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE.

excuse my common way, but I always like to look things in the face.'

Reuben made a point of fixing this sentence in the vicar's mind by giving a smart nod at the conclusion of it, and then gazing hard out of the window.

Mr. Maybold and old William looked in the same direction, apparently under the impression that the things' faces alluded to were there visible.

'What I have been thinking'—the tranter implied by this use of the past tense that he was hardly so discourteous as to be positively thinking it then—'is that the quire ought to be gie'd a little time, and not done away wi' till Christmas, as a fair thing between man and man. And, Mr. Mayble, I hope you'll excuse my common way?'

'I will, I will. Till Christmas,' the vicar murmured, stretching the two words

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