When they had smoked for some half hour the old man called for his granddaughter, but called of course in vain. 'Where the mischief is the jade gone?' he said, slowly making his way into the back kitchen. The maid, as soon as she heard her master moving, escaped into the yard and made no response, while the old man stood bawling at the back door. 'The devil's in them. They're off some gates,' he said aloud. 'She'll make the place hot for her, if she goes on this way.' Then he returned to the two young men. 'She's playing off her games somewheres,' he said. 'Take a glass of sperrits and water, Mr Crumb, and I'll see after her.'
'I'll just take a drop of y'ell,' said John Crumb, apparently quite unmoved by the absence of his sweetheart.
It was sad work for the old man. He went down the yard and into the garden, hobbling among the cabbages, not daring to call very loud, as he did not wish to have it supposed that the girl was lost; but still anxious, and sore at heart as to the ingratitude shown to him. He was not bound to give the girl a home at all. She was not his own child. And he had offered her £500! 'Domm her,' he said aloud as he made his way back to the house. After much search and considerable loss of time he returned to the kitchen in which the two men were sitting, leading Ruby in his hand. She was not smart in her apparel, for she had half undressed herself, and been then compelled by her grandfather to make herself fit to appear in public. She had acknowledged to herself that she had better go down and tell John Crumb the truth. For she was still determined that she would never be John Crumb's wife. 'You can answer him as well as I, grandfather,' she had said. Then the farmer had cuffed her, and told her that she was an idiot. 'Oh, if it comes to that,' said Ruby, 'I'm not afraid of John Crumb, nor yet of nobody else. Only I didn't think you'd go to strike me, grandfather.' 'I'll knock the life out of thee, if thou goest on this gate,' he had said. But she had consented to come down, and they entered the room together.
'We're a disturbing you a'most too late, miss,' said Mr Mixet.
'It ain't that at all, Mr Mixet. If grandfather chooses to have a few friends, I ain't nothing against it. I wish he'd have a few friends a deal oftener than he do. I likes nothing better than to do for 'em;-- only when I've done for 'em and they're smoking their pipes and that like, I don't see why I ain't to leave 'em to 'emselves.'