§ 13
Having tea at Fourhouses had not “finished it”; and she was glad, in spite of the best parlour. The Godfreys’ life might be wofully lacking in ornament, but she had seen enough to know that it was sound in fundamentals. Here was the house built on a rock, lacking style perhaps, but standing firm against the storms—while Alard was the house built on the sand, the sand of a crumbled and obsolete tradition, still lovely as it faced the lightning with its towers, but with its whole structure shaken by the world’s unrest.
She did not take in many impressions of her last few minutes at the farm. The outhouses and stables, tools and stock, were only a part of this bewildered turning of herself. They scarcely seemed outside her, but merged into the chaotic thought processes which her mind was slowly shaking into order. A quarter of an hour later she found herself walking with Peter along the road that winds at the back of Icklesham mill....
“Uncommon good sort of people, those Godfreys,” her brother was saying.
“Yes, I liked them very much.”
“I think there’s no class in England to equal the old-fashioned yeoman farmer. I’d be sorry to see him die out.”
“Do you think he will die out?”
“Well—land is always getting more and more of a problem. There aren’t many who can keep things up as well as Godfrey. He’s had the sense to go for livestock—it’s the only thing that pays nowadays. Of course the farmers are better off than we are—they aren’t hit the same way by taxation. But rates are high, and labour’s dear and damn bad. I really don’t know what’s going to become of the land, but I think the yeoman will last longer than the Squire. Government supports him, and won’t do a thing for us.”
Jenny said nothing. She felt unequal to a discussion in her present mood.
“I envy Godfrey in a lot of ways,” continued Peter—“he’s been able to do for his place things that would save ours if only we could afford them. He’s broken fifteen acres of marsh by the Brede River and gets nine bushels to the acre. Then you saw his cattle.... Something to be proud of there. If we could only go in for cattle-breeding on a large scale we might get the farms to pay.”