Rousing himself with a muttered apology, he found that the woodman alone remained, and that he was sitting apparently forgetful of his guest's presence.
"Did you speak?" said Jack, rubbing his eyes, and struggling with a very giant of a yawn. Gideon looked round.
"Rather," assented the Savage, with half-closed eyes; "it must have been the wind. I can't keep my head up."
The woodman rose, and taking down from a cupboard a bundle of fox-skins, arranged them on the floor, put a couple of chair-cushions at the head to serve as pillows, and threw a riding-cloak--which, by the way, did not correspond with a woodman's usual attire, and pointed to the impromptu bed.
"Thanks," said Jack, getting up and taking off his coat and boots.
"It is a poor bed," remarked the woodman, but the Savage interrupted him with a cheerful though sleepy assurance that it needed no apologies.
"I could sleep on a rail to-night," he said, "and that looks comfortable enough for a king! Fine skins! Good-night!" and he held out his hand.
Gideon looked at it, but refusing it, nodded gravely.
"You won't shake hands!" exclaimed the Savage, with a little flush and an aggrieved tone. "Come, isn't that carrying the high and imposing rather too far, old fellow? Makes one feel more ashamed than ever, you know. Perhaps I'd better march, after all."
"No," said Gideon, slowly. "It is not that I owe you any ill-will for your presence here. You are welcome, but I cannot take your hand. Good-night," and he went to the stairs.
At the door, however, he paused, and looked over his shoulder.
"Did you say that--Squire Davenant was your uncle, Mr. Newcombe?"
"Eh--uncle? Well, scarcely. It's rather difficult to tell what relationship there is between us. He's a sort of cousin, I believe," answered Jack, carelessly, but yet with a touch of gravity that had something comical about it. "Rum old boy, isn't he? You know him, don't you?"
"Oh, I thought you did by the way you looked when I mentioned his name just now. Good thing you don't, for you might have something to say about him that is not pleasant, and though the old man and I are not turtle doves just now, I'm bound to stand up for him for the sake of old times."
"You have quarreled?" the old man said; but the Savage had already curled himself up in the fox-skins, and was incapable of further conversation.