He did not smile at this. "I didn't know you felt like that about him," he said. "You don't about Eleanor, do you?"
"No. Eleanor has a more level head. I haven't really much fault to find with William either. I was only laughing at him. One does laugh at people who go up in the world, and show themselves so delighted with it, doesn't one? It's the best way to take them, especially if you're not going up in the world yourself. Or perhaps it isn't the best way. I'm not sure. Perhaps it shows you're a little jealous of them. But I'm certainly not jealous of Eleanor, and I'm sure you're not jealous of William. Poor William! I'm a little sorry for him."
"Sorry for him!"
"Ye—es. His success hasn't improved him. I don't like him as well as I did, and of course I'm sorry for the people I don't like, just as I'm rather inclined to envy the people I do like. I'll tell you what I think about all this bother. I don't believe William has the slightest intention of giving up his garden. He'll expect you to be overcome with remorse at having rebuked him, and beg him to go on. What does it matter to him, paying six men a week's wages, with no work done for it? Add there's no hurry, you know. They weren't going to plant in any case until October. There will be plenty of time to get new men to work at it, and get it finished in time."
"Do you really think that is what he has in his mind? Something of the same sort occurred to me, but I don't want to think such a thing."
"Well, dear, you had much better follow your own ideas about it than mine. You can't expect a woman to take the broad view of something that touches her that a man can. I dare say you're more likely to be right about William than I am. You have always treated him with great forbearance, and until now you have kept good friends with him."
"You do think that—that I've treated him with forbearance?"
She stopped, and with a light laugh, looking up at him, put her hands on his shoulders. "My dear kind-hearted conscientious old man!" she said. "I'll tell you what I think. If you don't make a stand now, William will very soon be everything at Hayslope, and you will be nothing."