"
Edward smiled as he took his seat.
"My father is as grateful to you as I am--I'm sure that he is--for I
heard him, when at prayer, call down blessings on your head. What can
he do for you? I begged Oswald Partridge to bring you here that I
might find out. Oh, sir, do, pray, let me know how we can show our
gratitude by something more than words."
"You have shown it already, Mistress Patience," replied Edward; "have
you not honored a poor forester with your hand in friendship, and even
admitted him to sit down before you?"
"He who has preserved my life at the risk of his own becomes to me as
a brother--at least I feel as a sister toward him: a debt is still a
debt, whether indebted to a king or to a--"
"Forester, Mistress Patience; that is the real word that you should
not have hesitated to have used. Do you imagine that I am ashamed of
my calling?"
"To tell you candidly the truth, then," replied Patience: "I can not
believe that you are what you profess to be. I mean to say that,
although a forester now, you were never brought up as such. My father
has an opinion allied to mine."
"I thank you both for your good opinion of me, but I fear that I can
not raise myself above the condition of a forester; nay, from your
father's coming down here, and the new regulations, I have every
chance of sinking down to the lower grade of a deer-stealer and
poacher; indeed, had it not been that I had my gun with me, I should
have been seized as such this very day as I came over.
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