"Surely it would be rather shabby to go and ask a man to give you lunch in order to prove something against him?" she made answer. "And even then that would not show he had been himself in the boat. As for any of the people about here using a scringe-net now and again to pick up a few fish—well, that is not a very heinous offence."
"If it is," said Meredyth (still siding with her), "it is committed every summer by a large number of highly respectable persons. Why, only the other day the Fishery Board had to issue a circular reminding owners of yachts that netting in territorial seas wasn't allowed."
"Oh, very well," said Fred Stanley, with a sort of affected resignation. "Very well. It is no concern of mine. The place does not belong to me. And of course, Mamie, you are only following out the programme which will be laid before the free and independent—the very free and independent—natives of this parish, on Monday. No doubt they will be told they have the right to take salmon and sea-trout wherever they can find them, either in the rivers, or round the mouths of the rivers, or in the sea. They have that right, you understand, but you haven't; if you try to catch a salmon, you will have a stone hurled into the pool in front of you! And what will be the rest of the programme when the English demagogue, and the French anarchist, and the Yankee platform-woman, come to set the heather on fire? How much more are you going to surrender, Mamie? You've cut down the rents everywhere—given up more pasture—given up more peat-land. What next? Don't you think it's an awful shame you should be living in a great big house like this, when those poor people are living in thatched hovels——"
"Well," said Mary, with an honest laugh, "if I must tell you the truth, I do sometimes think so. Sometimes, when I go outside, and look at the contrast, it does seem to me too great——"
"Oh, very well!" he said ironically. "When these are your sentiments, I don't wonder that the place is considered ripe for a general riot. But whatever your theories may be, I'm going to draw the line at personal violence and destruction of property. I shall have my six-chambered Colt loaded on Monday; and if any impudent blackguard dares to come near this place——"
"You are going up the hill on Monday," said she briefly. "Both you and Mr. Meredyth. I want some grouse for the kitchen; and as many more to send away as you can get for me."
"Pardon me, Miss Stanley," Meredyth said, and he spoke with a certain quiet decision, "you are asking a little too much. It is impossible for us to go away shooting and leave you at the mercy of what may turn out to be a riotous mob. It is quite impossible: you have no right to ask it."
"Yes, but I do ask it!" she said, somewhat petulantly—for she wished to be left free to follow her own designs on that fateful Monday. "You are my guest; you are here for the Twelfth; and I particularly want you—both you and Fred—to go away after the grouse; and never mind about this—this lecture, or whatever it is——"
"I for one, cannot," he said, firmly; "and I know Fred will not."
Mary glanced half-imploringly at Käthchen. But Käthchen sate mute. Perhaps she was considering that, whether Mary went to the meeting or not, it was just as well the two gentlemen were to be within hail. Besides, before then it was just possible Mary might be induced to confess to them her mad resolve: in which case it would become their duty to reason and remonstrate, seeing that Käthchen's protests had been of no avail. Or would they insist on accompanying her to the meeting, if she was determined to go? For one thing, Käthchen did not at all like Fred Stanley's reference to his Colt's revolver; if there was going to be any serious disturbance, that was not likely to prove a satisfactory means of quelling it.