"Well, he always seemed to me a bit of a wind shaker, and there's no denying that if he hadn't been to the village that chap Hunting might never have come down."
"That's true of course."
"But you know, I think he must have seen he'd made a bit of an ass of himself, when he saw the strike coming on and all that, at least, so he said."
"Oh, he said that, did he? Why, John? When did you talk to him?"
"I met him up in village this morning when I went to pay the joiner's bill for mending the reapers."
"Oh, yes. He was still there then?"
"Ay. He said he was leaving Anderby to-night. Going back to Manchester. He told me he'd wanted to say that as far as the strike had hit us, he was sorry and that when he saw how Coast and Hunting between them were egging the men on to hold out for more money, after we offered the three pounds, he felt he had to come down and stop it if he could."
"Oh, well, I'm glad he said that. Did he—did he ask after me?"
"No, I can't say that he did. He seemed a bit upset, though that's not unlikely seeing the way he's treated us. But I will say this, once he made up his mind, he did act like a gentleman. That was a rare speech he made at the meeting in the school room before the men came in. Some one reported it in the Hardrascliffe Times. I got a copy in the market to-day."
"Oh. I'll look at it when we get in."