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ade no reply, and the subject dropped. Barron returned to his letters, and presently Theresa saw his brow darken afresh over one of them.
"Anything wrong, father?"
"There's always something wrong on this estate. Crawley [Crawley was the head keeper] has caught those boys of John Broad again trespassing and stealing wood in the west plantation! Perfectly abominable! It's the second or third time. I shall give Broad notice at once, and we must put somebody into that cottage who will behave decently!"
"Poor Broad!" said Theresa, with her gentle, scared look. "You know, father, there isn't a cottage to be had in the village--and those boys have no mother--and John works very hard."
"Let him find another cottage all the same," said Barron briefly. "I shall go round, if I do get back from Markborough, and have a talk with him this evening."
There was silence for a little. Theresa was evidently sad. "Perhaps Lady Fox-Wilton would find him something," she said anxiously at last. "His mother was her maid long ago. First she was their schoolroom maid--then she went back to them, when her husband died and John married, and was a kind of maid housekeeper. Nobody knew why Lady Fox-Wilton kept her so long. They tell you in the village she had a shocking temper, and wasn't at all a good servant. Afterward I believe she went to America and I think she died. But she was with them a long while. I daresay they'd do something for John."
Barron made no reply. He had not been listening, and was already deep in other correspondence.
One letter still remained unopened. Theresa knew very well that it was from her brother Maurice, in London. And presently she pushed it toward Barron.
"Won't you open it? I do want to know if it's all right."
Barron opened it, rather unwillingly. His face cleared, however, as he read it.
"Not a bad report. He seems to like the work, and says they treat him kindly. He would like to come down for the Sunday--but he wants some mone