"What an early man he is!"
"Yes, and he said he'd hoped to see the work begun, because it frets him a lot that any land of his should go to rack. And he said that he'd have thought one like you, with a name for high farming, would have hated it as much as him."
"That's his cunning. The Honourable Childe's a very clever man, and I respect him for it. He knows me and I know him. The field will be as clean as a new pin before Christmas, I shouldn't wonder."
"You won't get your regular box of cigars from the man if it ain't, I expect."
"Oh yes, I shall. He's large-minded. He knows his luck. I like him very well, for he sees the amusing side of things."
"He weren't much amused last week."
Her father showed a trace of annoyance.
"What a damper you are, Soosie-Toosie! Was ever the like? You always take the dark view and be grim as a ghost under the ups and downs of life. If you'd only copy me there. But 'tis your poor mother in you. A luckier woman never walked you might say; yet she was never hopeful—always on the look out for the rainy day that never came."
"I'm hopeful enough to-day anyhow. I think the new men be the sort to suit you."
"Nobody's easier to suit than me," he answered. "Let a labourer but do his duty, or even get in sight of his duty, and I'm his friend."