"That was very good of you. Have you been doing visiting, then, during all these days I have been away?"
"Yes—a few people."
George groaned.
"What's the use of it—or of anything? They hate us and we them. This strike begins to eat into my very being. And the men will be beaten soon, and the feeling towards the employers will be worse than ever."
"You are sure they will be beaten?"
"Before Christmas, anyway. I daresay there will be some bad times first. To think a woman even can't walk these roads without danger of ill-treatment! How is one to have any dealings with the brutes, or any peace with them?"
His rage and bitterness made her somehow feel her bruises less. She even looked up in protest.
"Well, it was only a boy, and you used to think he wasn't all there."
"Oh! all there!" said George, scornfully. "There'd be half of them in Bedlam if one had to make that excuse for them. There isn't a day passes without some devilry against the non-union men somewhere. It was only this morning I heard of two men being driven into a reservoir near Rilston, and stoned in the water."
"Perhaps we should do the same," she said unwillingly.