CHAPTER XI
OSBORN'S PRIDE GETS HURT
Soon after the farmers met at Ashness, Bell, feeling sore and resentful, sat one evening in the Tarnside library. Osborn, after fixing a time for his visit, had kept him waiting twenty minutes, and Bell had come to think himself a man of a little importance. The spacious library was very cold and the end of a small log smouldered among the ashes in the grate. Bell knew he had been brought into the library because it was Osborn's business room; but the latter might have ordered the fire to be made up.
His neglect rankled, although Bell had something else to think about. He had lowered his price for coal another shilling, without attracting buyers, and now admitted that the dales folks' resistance was getting dangerous. To some extent, the Askews were accountable for this, but Osborn got a large share of the profit Bell had hoped to make. One did not pay a high rent for nothing. By and by Bell looked at Hayes, who stood by the hearth.
"The next time I come to Tarnside Mr. Osborn will wait for me," he remarked.
Hayes made a warning gesture, there were steps in the passage, and Osborn came in. He sat down at the end of the table and looked at his watch.
"I can give you about a quarter of an hour," he said. "Perhaps we had better begin."
The big room was nearly dark, but the men sat in the light a shaded lamp threw across the table. Osborn looked half bored and half impatient, Hayes was urbanely inscrutable, while Bell's mean face was marked by greed.
"Mr. Bell finds his stock of coal accumulating faster than he likes," said Hayes. "He must pay on delivery, and since his customers have combined against him, feels he's entitled to some relief."
"I don't see how that is my business," Osborn rejoined. "Bell might get over the difficulty by lowering his price."