"I'm walking over my grave again," he muttered uneasily, and although he would not confess to superstition, the coincidence struck him as disagreeable.
"What's that?" asked Rupert absently. He had been busy with his own painful thoughts and had not paid much attention to his companion's light nothings.
"You know the saying that when one shivers, or has what the Scotch call a grue, one is walking over one's grave. Well, I had some such uncanny feeling in this very avenue when I came to see you first, and now, hang it all, I have it again. I don't like it."
Hendle, now more attentive, laughed. "A lawyer and superstitious?"
"Oh, bosh! I am not in the least superstitious. But there are some things which are hard to explain. It's gone!" Carrington wiped his perspiring face and looked round with an air of relief.
"That feeling of walking over my own grave."
"Rubbish!" said Hendle, who was much too stolid to believe in such things. "I expect it was only a sudden chill."
"I dare say, although it is odd that I should get a chill in this blazing sunshine," muttered the barrister, who was more impressed than he cared to admit. "But there are more things in heaven and earth----"
"What a well-worn quotation! You need bucking up. Come into the inn and we will each have a tankard."
"Nor do I. I never do. But all this worry has knocked me out of time and you aren't feeling up to the mark. Come along. Mrs. Pansey has known me all the days of my life and is distinctly a good sort. I often look in and have a chat."
"As an Olympian descending among mortals," said Carrington smiling, for by this time his odd feeling had passed away.
Mrs. Pansey, who was a rosy-faced, stout old dame, received her landlord with respectful joy, and soon supplied them with tankards of cool beer acceptable to the thirst on a hot day. Carrington noted how popular Rupert was with the villagers, who came and went, passed and repassed, each with a curtsey, or a touch of the forelock. And Hendle greeted one and all by name with kindly inquiries and genial smiles. A feeling of envy stirred the barrister's selfish heart, but he cynically consoled himself with the reflection that very soon Rupert would be ousted in favor of Mallien. Out of sheer annoyance with this favorite of Fortune, he would have liked to see such a toppling down, but nevertheless, for the gaining of his own ends, he was determined to prevent such a change of landlords. Meanwhile, he listened to the incessant chatter of Mrs. Pansey, which was mostly concerned with the new vicar.