"Well," she said, "we have driven over as we promised. I've no doubt you will give us supper, but we'll go on and sit down with Mrs. Nansen in the meanwhile. I expect you're too busy to talk to us."
[Illustration: "'Well,' she said, 'we have driven over as we promised!'"]
Wyllard laughed, and it occurred to Agatha that his laugh was wholesome as well as pleasant.
"I generally am busy," he admitted. "These beasts have, however, been at it since sun-up, and they're rather played out now. I'll talk to you as long as you like after supper, which will soon be ready. It's bad economy to ask too much from them."
Agatha noticed that though the near horse's coat was foul with dust and sweat he laid his brown hand upon it, and she supposed she must be fanciful, for it seemed to her that the gentleness with which he did it was very suggestive.
"I wonder if that's the only reason that influences you," she said.
A twinkle crept into Wyllard's eyes. "It seems to me a good one as far as it goes; anyway, I've been driven rather hard myself now and then, and I didn't like it."
"Doesn't that usually result in making one drive somebody else harder to make up for it, when one has the opportunity?"
"If it does it certainly isn't logical. Logic's rather a fine thing when it's sound."
"Then," Mrs. Hastings broke in, "I'll suggest a proposition: what's to be the result of all this ploughing if we have harvest frost or the market goes against you?"
"Quite a big deficit," said Wyllard cheerfully.
"And that doesn't cause you any anxiety?"
"I'll have had some amusement for my money."
Mrs. Hastings turned to Agatha. "He calls working from sunrise until it's dark, and afterwards now and then, amusement!" Then she looked back at Wyllard. "I believe it isn't quite easy for you to hold your back as straight as you are doing, and that off-horse certainly looks as if it wanted to lie down."
Wyllard laughed. "It won't until after supper, anyway. There are two more rows of furrows still to do."
"I suppose that is a hint," and Mrs. Hastings glanced at Agatha when the waggon jolted on.
"That man," she said, "is a great favourite of mine. For one thing, he's fastidious, though he's fortunately very far from perfect in some respects. He has a red-hot temper, which now and then runs away with him."