Joses walked down the village street with her, expostulating.
Mrs. Haggard, the vicar's wife, an austere woman, with a jealously guardian eye for all the village maidens, met the pair and eyed the girl severely.
Later in the day she came on Boy alone and stopped her.
"Do you know that man, Joyce?" she asked.
Mrs. Haggard was the one person in the world who called Boy by her Christian name. And she did it, as she did everything else, on principle.
"Not really," answered Boy.
"I don't like him," said Mrs. Haggard.
"Neither do I," answered the girl.
"I'm glad to hear it," said the other. "He's not a nice man."
That evening Mrs. Haggard went to see Mrs. Woodburn and gave the trainer's wife some of her reasons—and they were good reasons, too—for thinking Mr. Joses not a nice man.