Chapter VII: Act I: Scene 1

_A wood_. _It is a morning in June_.

GEORGE, _carrying an empty basket_, _comes slowly through the wood_. _On reaching a fallen tree he sits down on it_, _placing his basket on the ground_. _With his stick he absently moves the grass and leaves that lie before him_, _and is so deeply lost in his own thoughts that he does not hear the approach of_ MILES _and_ LUKE _until they are by his side_.

MILES. Here’s the very man to tell us all we want to know.

LUKE. Why, if ’tisn’t George from Ox Lease.

[GEORGE _half rises_.

MILES. No, sit you down again, my lad, and we’ll rest awhile by the side of you.

LUKE. That’s it, Miles. Nothing couldn’t have fallen out better for us, I’m thinking.

MILES. You’re about right, Luke. Now, George, my man, we should very much appreciate a few words with you.

GEORGE. [_Taking up his basket_.] Morning baint the time for words, masters. I count as words will keep till the set of sun. ’Tis otherwise with work.

MILES. Work, why, George, ’tis clear you are come out but to gather flowers this morning.

LUKE. ’Tis the very first time as ever I caught George an idling away of his time like this.

GEORGE. ’Tis over to Brook as I be going, masters, to fetch back a couple of young chicken. Ourn be mostly old fowls, or pullets what do lay.

LUKE. I never heard tell of young chicken being ate up at Ox Lease afore July was in.

GEORGE. Nor me neither, master. Never heared nor seed such a thing. But mistress, her says, you can’t sit a maid from town at table unless there be poultry afore of she. They be rare nesh in their feeding, maids from town, so mistress do say.

MILES. That just brings us to our little matter, George. When is it that you expect the young lady?

GEORGE. The boxes of they be stacked mountains high in the bedroom since yesterday. And I count as the maids will presently come on their own feet from where the morning coach do set them down.

LUKE. Nay, but there’s only one maid what’s expected.

GEORGE. Miss Clara, what’s master’s sister; and the serving wench of she.

MILES. Well, George, ’twas a great day for your master when old Madam Lovel took little Miss Clara to be bred up as one of the quality.

GEORGE. A water plant do grow best by the stream, and a blossom, from the meadows, midst the grass. Let each sort bide in the place where ’twas seeded.

MILES. No, no, George, you don’t know what you’re talking about. A little country wench may bloom into something very modish and elegant, once taken from her humble home and set amongst carpets of velvet and curtains of satin. You’ll see.

GEORGE. ’Twould be a poor thing for any one to be so worked upon by curtains, nor yet carpets, master.

MILES. Take my word for it, George, Ox Lease will have to smarten up a bit for this young lady. I know the circles she has been moving in, and ’tis to the best of everything that she has been used.

GEORGE. [_Rising_.] That’s what mistress do say. And that’s why I be sent along down to Brook with haymaking going on and all. Spring chicken with sparrow grass be the right feeding for such as they. So mistress do count.

MILES. Stop a moment, George. You have perhaps heard the letters from Miss Clara discussed in the family from time to time.

GEORGE. Miss Clara did never send but two letters home in all the while she was gone. The first of them did tell as how th’ old lady was dead and had left all of her fortune to Miss Clara. And the second was to say as how her was coming back to the farm this morning.

LUKE. And hark you here, George, was naught mentioned about Miss Clara’s fine suitors in neither of them letters?

GEORGE. That I cannot say, Master Jenner.

MILES. Nothing of their swarming thick around her up in London, George?

GEORGE. They may be swarming by the thousand for aught as I do know. They smells gold as honey bees do smell the blossom. Us’ll have a good few of them a-buzzing round the farm afore we’re many hours older, so I counts.

MILES. Well, George, that’ll liven up the place a bit, I don’t doubt.

LUKE. ’Tis a bit of quiet and no livening as Ox Lease do want. Isn’t that so, George, my lad?

GEORGE. [_Preparing to set off_.] I’ll say good morning to you, masters. I count I’ve been and wasted a smartish time already on the road. We be a bit hard pressed up at the farm this day.

MILES. But George, my man, we have a good many questions to ask of you before you set off.

GEORGE. Them questions will have to bide till another time, I reckon. I’m got late already, master.

[_He hurries off_.

MILES. Arriving by the morning coach! I shall certainly make my call to the farm before sunset. What do you say, Jenner?

LUKE. You’re a rich man, Miles, and I am poor. But we have always been friends.

MILES. And our fathers before us, Luke.

LUKE. And the courting of the same maid shall not come between us.

MILES. [_Slowly_.] That’ll be all right, Luke.

LUKE. What I do say is, let’s start fair. Neck to neck, like.

MILES. As you please, my good Luke.

LUKE. Then, do you tell me honest, shall I do in the clothes I’m a-wearing of now, Miles?

MILES. [_Regarding him critically_.] That neckerchief is not quite the thing, Luke.

LUKE. ’Tis my Sunday best.

MILES. Step over to the High Street with me, my lad. I’ve got something in the shop that will be the very thing. You shall have it half price for ’tis only a bit damaged in one of the corners.

LUKE. I’m sure I’m very much obliged to you, Miles.

MILES. That’s all right, Luke.

LUKE. George would look better to my thinking if there was a new coat to the back of him.

MILES. Ah, poor beggar, he would, and no mistake.

LUKE. I warrant as Emily do keep it afore him as how he was took in from off the road by th’ old farmer in his day.

MILES. I flatter myself that I have a certain way with the ladies. They come to me confidential like and I tell them what’s what, and how that, this or t’other is worn about town. But with Missis Spring ’tis different. That’s a woman I could never get the right side of no how.

LUKE. Ah, poor Thomas! There’s a man who goes down trod and hen scratched if you like.

MILES. ’Tis altogether a very poor place up at Ox Lease, for young Miss.

LUKE. [_Pulling out his watch_.] Time’s slipping on. What if we were to stroll on to the shop and see about my neckerchief, Miles?

MILES. I’m sure I’m quite agreeable, Luke. ’Twill help to pass away the morning.

[_He puts his arm in_ LUKE’S _and they go briskly off in the direction of the village_.