CHAPTER XX.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 15, 27 January 1893, Page 25

CHAPTER XX.

Percy Perrington, lEsq, J.P., sat at his office, bis elbow resting upon a table oovered with papers, biting the feathers off bis quill pen, with an expreidton of grinning laughter in his short, terrierlike phiz. The only other occupant of the room was Bill Keerawan, the rent-warner, who was standing at the end of the table wearing quite a solemn, if not sorrowful, cast of countenance. Yet a close observer could have detected something approaching to a twinkle in Bill Keerawan's dull, gray eyas, and an occasional twitch of the muscles of the stolid face, indicative of inward gratification, which, in spite of his utmost efforts, he could not wholly conceal. The snappish biting at the quill pen had been kept up for ten minutes or ft quarter of an hour ; during that space of time the rain had poured down in ruch a heavy and continuous torrent, that a number of men — some twenty or thirty — who bad been standing in twos and threes upon the avenue, had collected under a tree in the lawn, apparently for tbe sake of the scant shelter of its leafless boughs. Four or five of those men were comfortably and respectably dressed. Eight or ten wore riding (coats that had a flimsy, thread-bare appearance, as blown by the keen December wind, they seemed to cling to the wearers,' legs — which legs in most cases, judging from what was visible of tbe gray, worsted stockings, were not of tbe stoutest. But the majority of those composing the little crowd under the leafless trees, were of the poorest class of peasant farmers, and— as the rain ran down their slouched hats, over their patched and tattered habiliments, looked the very picture of wretchedness. You could easily have picked out the man in that motley group who had the halfyear's rent in his pocket. He stood erect, and glanced occasionally towards the house with an assumed smile. Tbe furtive, uneasy, but not quite terrified glance at tbe office window, told of the necessity of &king a little time to make up a deficiency of a few pounds, caußed by the low prices of oats this winter. While an occasional compression of the blanched lips and a catching of the breath betrayed the terror of him who feared the dreaded sentence of eviction would be pronounced that dismal day ; and that, wet and hungry, he'd bave to return to his cheerless home to tell his wife and little ones that tbe poor-house must be their doom. The few comfortable well-dressed farmers buttoned up their overcoats, and with flushed faces, expected every moment to be summoned to their landlord's presence. They keenly felt the indignity of being thus left standing to be drenched to the skin outside their master* door ; and at that moment at least, tbe thoughts that passed through the minds of these respectable and peace-loving subjects of Queen Victoria were tinctured with a trifle of sedition. The poorer men took it more quietly, and wrapped their well-worn riding coats closely about them as the rain became sleety, and the keen blast seemed to pierce to the narrow ot their bones. There were some ghastly attempts at joking always on the part of the raggedest aad hungriest-looking of the lot — which tended rather to intensify than relieve the dismalness of the future which afforded such intense delight to Mr Percy Perrington, as he eat with his elbow upon the table, biting the feathers off his pen and waiting for the rain to cease before beginning to summon his tenants one by one to his presence. When the rain began to come down in right earnest, a few of the scattered groups in the lawn moved slowly towards the yard and had taken shelter in a cow-house, the gate of which stood invitingly open, when they were joined by Bill Keerawan, who in a friendly and confidential way told them to go to the front of the house and " wait there till they'd be called. He likes to see all the tenants together," Bill Eeerawan added eolemnly, " an* if ye warn't all there, there's no knowing how long he might delay before beginnin' to send out for ye." "The tenants addressed, of coarse, acted upon the friendly advice, and returned to the lawn. The rent-warner entered the house by the back door and made his way to the landlord's office without waiting to be summoned. Bill Keerawhn stood inside the door, evidently expecting that business'was to commence forthwith. But as Mr Perrington went on biting the pen, and minute after minute passed without a word spoken, the rent.warner moved softly to the end of the table, for the

double purpose of getting near the fire that blazed invitingly behind the landlord's back, and of taking up a position from which he might be able to discover what it was Mr Perrington saw ont in tbe lawn that so amused and delighted him. Bill Eeerawan did not at onoe catch the humour of the scene outside, and consequently looked a little blank and puxzled.

" It must be somethin' he's thinkin' on," was the rent-warner's reflection, as he looked in vain over the dreary landscape for any object even remotely soggestive of cheerfulness. As a great gust splashed the heavy rain against the window, so as for a moment to shut out all view of objects outside, Bill Eeerawan looked placidly at the biasing fire, of whose grateful warmth be was beginning to feel conscious, and thought how pleasantly his position at the moment contrasted with that of tbe poor devils under the tree. Then, for the first time, the secret of bis master's gladness of spirit dawned upon him. He looked demurely through the corners of hit eyes at tee drenched and shivering crowd outside, and tbe rentwarner's stolid features indicated a struggle between real and counterfeit sympathy — tbe one with Mr Percy Perrington, the other with Mr Percy Perrington's tenantry. The sky brightened a little, however, and the rain became less heavy. Mr Perrington looked at bis pen, which was quite bare of feathers by this time, and was about turning to the rent-warner, when something outside the window caught his eye, and, starting to his feet, he exclaimed :

" Didn't I tell that fellow never to let me see a sight of that dog or I'd shoot him on the spot ? "

" He gave him away to Mr Armstrong," returned Bill Keerawan. "I never saw the dog with him this bis months. Bnt the devil wouldn't keep him from the rabbit -burrow."

" And the fellow refused to give the dog to me," said Mr Per* rington with a scowl.

" Sure he hasn't a etim ay sense," rejoined Bill Eeerawan — remembering that his mistress was very friendly to poor Ponsonby, and fancying he heard Mrs Perrington's step approaching the office door. " Bob Dee, the fool, 'ud buy and sell Ponsonby at a fair."

" Really," exclaimed the lady of the house, as she opened tbe door of the office and walked in quickly, bnt with a certain air of dignity and grace that took away all appearance of haste from her movements, " it is a shame to see so respectable a young man as that standing ont there in tbe r^in."