Jasper read the thing with laughing appreciation.
'Just what one expected!' 'And I have private letters on the subject,' added Mr Yule.
'There has been something like a personal conflict between Fadge and the man who looks after the minor notices.

Fadge, more so, charged the other man with a design to damage him and the paper.

There's talk of legal proceedings.

An immense joke!' He laughed in his peculiar croaking way.
'Do you feel disposed for a turn along the lanes, Mr Milvain ?' 'By all means .-- There's my mother at the window; will you come in for a moment ?' With a step of quite unusual sprightliness Mr Yule entered the house.
He could talk of but one subject, and Mrs Milvain had to listen to a laboured account of the blunder just committed by The Study.

It was Alfred's Yule's characteristic that he could do nothing lighthandedly.
He seemed always to converse with effort; he took a seat with stiff ungainliness; he walked with a stumbling or sprawling gait.
When he and Jasper set out for their ramble, his loquacity was in strong contrast with the taciturn mood he had exhibited yesterday and the day before.