A. T. Quiller-Couch

“ It seemed that they dared do no more.
"Save us!" exclaimed Miss Sally. "They're starving; that's what's the matter!"
"They are not, ma'am!" still protested Mrs. Huggins.
"Tut, woman, don't talk to me. I've bred cattle, and I know. Fetch me a list of the pious persons that have lent their names to this swindle. You, Mr. Hucks, take me up-stairs; I'll explore this den from garret to basement, though it cost my stomach all that by the smell I judge it will. And you, Sam Bossom—here's a five-pound note: take it to the nearest pastry-cook's and buy up the stock. ”

“ You never took no orders from a man, I should say—not by the looks o' yer."
"You are right there."
Miss Sally regarded her with a smile of conscious strength, stern but good-natured. Her gaze wandered past the woman's shoulder, and the smile broadened. Mrs. Huggins saw it broaden, and cast a look behind her, towards the house—to see Mr. Bossom, coal-grimed but cheerful, grinning down on her from the front door-step.
"It's a trap!" she gasped, shooting a venomous look at Mr. Hucks.
"It looks like one," said Miss Sally, stepping past her ”

“ Mr. Hucks kept his composure.
"It's plain to me you haven't measured that gal," he said slowly. "Is this Holmness in sight from the farm—whatever you call it—where they were missed?"
"Right opposite the coast there."
"And not more than three miles away? Then you may take it she won't have started without provisions. It wouldn't be her way."
[Again, the reader perceives, he gave Tilda undeserved credit; but always in this world the Arthur Miles's will be left out of account by men of business, to upset again and again their calculations.] ”