or afterwards," Osborn replied,
with a touch of embarrassment. "Anyhow, I don't think it's important,
because I did not allow his offer to persuade me. For all that, it's some
satisfaction to get the work done cheap."
Grace pondered. She was intelligent; contact with her school companions
had developed her character, and she had begun to understand Osborn since
she came home. She knew he was easily deceived and sometimes
half-consciously deceived himself.
"No," she said, "I don't think the work will really be cheap. It's often
expensive to take a favor from a man like Bell. He will find a means of
making you pay."
"Ridiculous! Bell can't make me pay."
"Then he will make somebody else pay for what he does for you, and it's
hardly honest to let him," Grace insisted.
Mrs. Osborn gave her a warning glance and Osborn's face got red.
"It's a new thing for a young girl to criticize her father. This is what
comes of indulging your mother and making some sacrifice to send you to
an expensive modern school! If I'd had my way, you would have gone to
another, where they teach the old-fashioned virtues: modesty, obedience,
and respect for parents."
Grace smiled, because she knew the school Osborn meant and the type it
produced. She was grateful to her mother for a better start.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, but with a hint of resolution. "I
don't want to criticize, but Bell is greedy and cunning, and now he
has got both coal yards will charge the farmers more than he ought.
He has already got too large a share of all the business that is done
in the dale."
"It's obvious that you have learned less than you think," Osborn
rejoined, feeling that he was on safer ground. "You don't seem to
understand that concentration means economy. Bell, for example, buys and
stores his goods in large quantities, instead of handling a number of
small lots at different times, which would cost him more."
"I can see that," Grace admitted, "But I imagine he will keep all he
saves. You know the farmers are grumbling about his charges."
Osborn frowned. "You talk too much to the farm people; I don't like it.
You can be polite, but I want you to remember they are my tenants, and
not to sympathize with their imaginary grievances. They're a grumbling
lot, but will keep their places if you leave them alone."
He got up abruptly and when he went off across the lawn Mrs. Osborn gave
the girl a reproachful glance.
"You are very rash, my
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