‘That may be; but he believes that other people have a right to do so if they like. He has persuaded every man and woman who comes to me or my bailiff to put the question: “Is there to be beer?” When they are answered: “No; but the money,” they turn on their heels and march off, so that at this moment we have only two men. Now, my dear Miss Heathcote, will you persuade Kersey to stop his interference?’
‘I do not see that he is interfering; but I will speak to him.’
‘Thanks, thanks. If you were with me I should have no difficulty.’
‘You would find me a very bad second,’ she answered, laughing, ‘for I should say—submit to old customs until persuasion alters them, since force never can.’
Two things struck Madge during this interview and the commonplaces about nothing which followed it: The first, how much more frank and at ease he seemed to be with her than with any one else; and the second was, how loath he seemed to go.
The owner of Ringsford said to himself as he was driven away: ‘I shall be glad when she is Philip’s wife.’
CHAPTER V.—A NEW EDEN.
She was still standing at the door to which she had accompanied Mr Hadleigh, and was looking after him, when a kindly voice behind her said: ‘He does look a woeful man. I wonder if he has any real friends.’
Madge turned. Aunt Hessy was standing there, a pitying expression on her comely face, and she was wiping her hands in her apron. There was nothing in Mrs Crawshay’s manner or appearance to indicate her Quaker antecedents, except the frequent use of thee and thou—she did not always use that form of speech—and the quiet tone of all the colours of her dress. Yet, until her marriage she had been, like her father, a good Wesleyan; after her marriage she accompanied her husband to the church in which his family had kept their place for so many generations. To her simple faith it was the same whether she worshipped in church or chapel.
‘Why do you say that, aunt?’