"You are the agent here, I presume?"
Maryllia's voice rang cold and clear,--there was not a trace of the sweet and coaxing tone in it that had warmed the heart of old Josey Letherbarrow.
Leach looked up, lifting his cap half reluctantly.
"I am!"
"You have had my orders?"
Leach was silent. The young rustics hustled one another forward, moved by strong excitement, all eager to see the feminine 'Humpire' who had descended upon them as suddenly as a vision falling from the skies, and all wondering what would happen next.
"You have had my orders?" repeated Maryllia;--then, as no answer was vouchsafed to her, she looked round and perceived Bainton. To him she at once addressed herself.
"Who has struck Spruce?"
Bainton hesitated. It was an exceedingly awkward position. He looked appealingly, as was his wont, up into the air and among the highest branches of the 'Five Sisters' for 'Passon Walden,' but naturally could not discover him at that elevation.
"Come, come!" said Maryllia, imperatively--"You are not all deaf, I hope! Give me a straight answer, one of you! Who struck Spruce?"
"Mister Leach did!" said the big-boned lad who had constituted himself Spruce's defender. "We 'eerd down in the village as 'ow you'd come 'ome, Miss, and as 'ow you'd give your orders that the Five Sisters was to be left stannin', and we coomed up wi' Spruce to see 'ow Leach 'ud take it, an' 'fore we could say a wurrd Leach he up wi' his whip and cut Spruce across the for'ead as ye see--"
Maryllia raised her hand and silenced him with a gesture. "Thank you! That will do. I understand!" She turned towards Leach; "What have you to say for yourself?" "I take no orders from a servant," replied Leach, insolently; "I have managed this estate for ten years, and I give in my statements and receive my instructions from the firm of solicitors who have it in charge. I am not called upon to accept any different arrangement without proper notice."
Maryllia heard him out with coldly attentive patience.
"You will accept a different arrangement without any further notice at all," she said; "You will leave the premises and resign all management of my property from this day henceforward. I dismiss you, for disobedience and insolence, and for assaulting my servant, Spruce, in the execution of his duty. And as for these trees, if any man touches a bough of one of them without my permission, I will have him prosecuted! Now you know my mind!".