ud of it."

Huxtable rubbed his large nose, from either side of which his sharp eyes
looked disapprovingly at Joanna. He admired her, but she maddened him by
refusing to see the obvious side of her femininity.

"Most young women of your age have other things to think of besides
farming. There's your sister, and then--don't tell me that you won't
soon be thinking of getting married."

"Well, and if I do, it'll be time enough then to settle about the farm.
As for Ellen, I don't see what difference she makes, except that I must
see to things for her sake as well as mine. It wouldn't help her much if
I handed over this place to a man who'd muddle it all up and maybe bring
us to the Auctioneer's. I've known ... I've seen ... they had a bailiff
in at Becket's House and he lost them three fields of lucerne the first
season, and got the fluke into their sheep. Why, even Sir Harry Trevor's
taken to managing things himself at North Farthing after the way he saw
they were doing with, that old Lambarde, and what he can do I can do,
seeing I wasn't brought up in a London square."

As Joanna's volubility grew, her voice rose, not shrilly as with most
women, but taking on a warm, hoarse note--her words seemed to be flung
out hot as coals from a fire. Mr. Huxtable grimaced. "She's a virago,"
he thought to himself. He put up his hand suavely to induce silence, but
the eruption went on.

"I know all the men, too. They'd do for me what they wouldn't do for a
stranger. And if they won't, I know how to settle 'em. I've been
bursting with ideas about farming all my life. Poor Father said only a
week before he was taken 'Pity you ain't a man, Joanna, with some of the
notions you've got.' Well, maybe it's a pity and maybe it isn't, but
what I've got to do now is to act up proper and manage what is mine, and
what you and other folks have got to do is not to meddle with me."

"Come, come, my dear young lady, nobody's going to meddle with you. You
surely don't call it 'meddling' for your father's lawyer, an old man
who's known you all your life, to offer you a few words of advice. You
must go your own way, and if it doesn't turn out as satisfactorily as
you expect, you can always change it."

"Reckon I can," said Joanna, "but I shan't have to. Won't you take
another whisky, Mr. Huxtable?"

The lawyer accepted. Joanna Godden's temper might be bad, but her
whisky was good. He wondered if the one would make up for the other to
Arthur Alce o