"He offered me five shillings to go and bring her answer."
"Did you know the lady?"
"No, sir, but he described her."
"To be sure." said Barnabas; "he mentioned her hair, perhaps?"
"Yes, sir."
"Her—eyelashes, perhaps?"
"And her eyes also, sir."
"Yes, her eyes, of course. He seemed to know her well, perhaps?"
"Yes, sir."
"And she—promised to meet him—in a very lonely place?"
"At Oakshott's Barn, sir."
Once again Barnabas stared down at his book, and was silent so long that his new servant wondered, grew fidgety, coughed, and at last spoke.
"Sir," said he, "what are your orders?"
Barnabas started and looked up.
"Orders?" he repeated; "why, first of all, get something to eat, then find yourself a barber, and wait for me at 'The Spotted Cow.'"
"Yes, sir." The man bowed, turned away, took three or four steps, and came back again.
"Sir," said he, "I have two guineas of yours, and you have never even asked my name."
"True," said Barnabas.
"Supposing I go, and never come back?"
"Then I shall be two guineas the poorer, and you will have proved yourself a thief; but until you do, you are an honest man, so far as I am concerned."
"Sir, said the fugitive, hoarsely, but with a new light in his face," for that, if I were not your servant—I—should like to—clasp your hand; and, sir, my name is John Peterby."
"Why, then," said Barnabas, smiling all at once, "why then, John
Peterby, here it is!"
So, for a moment their hands met, and then John Peterby turned sharp about and strode away down the lane, his step grown light and his head held high.
But as for Barnabas, he sat there in the ditch, staring at nothing; and as he stared his brow grew black and ever blacker, until chancing at last to espy the "priceless wollum," where it lay beside him, he took it up, balanced it in his hand, then hurled it over the opposite hedge: which done, he laughed sudden and harsh, and clenched his fists.
"God!" he exclaimed, "a goddess and a satyr!" and so sat staring on
at nothingness again.
CHAPTER XVIII
HOW BARNABAS CAME TO OAKSHOTT'S BARN
The sun was getting low, as Barnabas parted the brambles, and looking about him, frowned. He stood in a grassy glade or clearing, a green oasis hemmed in on every side with bushes. Before him was Oakshott's Barn, an ancient structure, its rotting thatch dishevelled, its doors gone long since, its aged walls cracked and scarred by years, a very monument of desolation; upon its threshold weeds had sprung up, and within its hoary shadow breathed an air damp, heavy, and acrid with decay.
It was indeed a place of solitude full of the "hush" of leaves, shut out from the world, close hidden from observation, a place apt for the meetings of lovers. And, therefore, leaning in the shadow of the yawning doorway, Barnabas frowned.
Evening was falling, and from shadowy wood, from dewy grass and flower, stole wafts of perfume, while from some thicket near by a blackbird filled the air with the rich note of his languorous song; but Barnabas frowned only the blacker, and his hand clenched itself on the stick he carried, a heavy stick, that he had cut from the hedge as he came.
All at once the blackbird's song was hushed, and gave place to a rustle of leaves that drew nearer and nearer; yet Barnabas never moved, not even when the bushes were pushed aside and a man stepped into the clearing—a tall, elegant figure, who having paused to glance sharply about him, strolled on again towards the barn, swinging his tasselled walking-cane, and humming softly to himself as he came. He was within a yard of Barnabas when he saw him, and stopped dead.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, softly; and thereafter the two eyed each other in an ominous silence.
"And who the devil are you?" he inquired at length, his eyes still intent.
"Sir," said Barnabas, yet leaning in the doorway—"your name I think, is Chichester?"
"Well?"
"Permit me to return your coat button!" and Barnabas held out the article in question, but Mr. Chichester never so much as glanced at it.
"What do you want here?" he demanded, soft of voice.
"To tell you that this dismal place is called Oakshott's Barn, sir."
"Well?"
