till. Most of them were shocked, in
spite of the scarf and the long gloves, but then it was just like
Joanna Godden to swing bravely through an occasion into which most women
would have crept. She saw that she had made a sensation, which she had
expected and desired, and her physical modesty being appeased, she had
no objection to the men's following eyes. She saw that Sir Harry Trevor
was in the room, with his son Martin.

It was the first time that the Squire had been to the Farmers' Club
Dinner. Up till then no one had taken him seriously as a farmer. For a
year or two after his arrival in the neighbourhood he had managed the
North Farthing estate through a bailiff, and on the latter's turning out
unsatisfactory, had dismissed him, and at the same time let off a good
part of the land, keeping only a few acres for cow-grazing round the
house. Now, on his son's coming home and requiring an outdoor life, he
had given a quarter's notice to the butcher-grazier to whom he had
sub-let his innings, had bought fifty head of sheep, and joined the
Farmers' Club--which he knew would be a practical step to his advantage,
as it brought certain privileges in the way of marketing and hiring.
Joanna was glad to see him at the Woolpack, because she knew that there
was now a chance of the introduction she had unfortunately missed in
Pedlinge village a few weeks ago. She had a slight market-day
acquaintance with the Old Squire--as the neighbourhood invariably called
him, to his intense annoyance--and now she greeted him with her broad
smile.

"Good evening, Sir Harry."

"Good evening, Miss Godden. I'm pleased to see you here. You're looking
very well."

His bold tricky eyes swept over her, and somehow she felt more gratified
than by all the bulging glances of the other men.

"I'm pleased to see you, too, Sir Harry. I hear you've joined the Club."

"Surelye--as a real farmer ought to say; and so has my son Martin--he's
going to do most of the work. Martin, you've never met Miss Godden. Let
me introduce you."

Joanna's welcoming grin broke itself on the young man's stiff bow. There
was a moment's silence.

"He doesn't look as if a London doctor had threatened him with
consumption," said the Squire banteringly. "Sometimes I really don't,
think I believe it--I think he's only come down here so as he can look
after me."

Martin made some conventional remark. He was a tall, broadly built young
man, with a dark healthy skin and tha