A DOG. OF FLANDERS. II9g

and though no serious charge was
ever preferred against the lad, it got
bruited about that Nello had been
seen in the mill-yard after dark on
some unspoken errand, and that he
bore Baas Cogez a grudge for forbid-
ding his intercourse with little Alois ;
and so the hamlet, which followed ©
the sayings of its richest landowner
servilely, and whose families all
hoped to secure the riches of Alois
in some future time for their sons,
took the hint to give grave looks and
cold words to old Jehan Daas’ grand-
son. No one said anything to him
openly, but all the village agreed to-
gether to humor the miller’s preju-
dice ; and at the cottages and farms
where Nello and Patrasche called