lloring) WERE rather unable
to put themselves in the position of these Trysts and Gaunts. He seemed
to speak of them as one might speak generically of Hodge, which had
struck Malloring as singular, it not being his habit to see anything in
common between an individual case, especially on his own estate, and the
ethics of a general proposition. The place for general propositions was
undoubtedly the House of Commons, where they could be supported one way
or the other, out of blue books. He had little use for them in private
life, where innumerable things such as human nature and all that came
into play. He had stared rather hard at his host when Stanley had
followed up that first remark with: "I'm bound to say, I shouldn't care
to have to get up at half past five, and go out without a bath!" What
that had to do with the land problem or the regulation of village
morality Malloring had been unable to perceive. It all depended on what
one was accustomed to; and in any case threw no light on the question, as
to whether or not he was to tolerate on his estate conduct of which his
wife and himself distinctly disapproved. At the back of national life
there was always this problem of individual conduct, especially sexual
conduct--without regularity in which, the family, as the unit of national
life, was gravely threatened, to put it on the lowest ground. And he did
not see how to bring it home to the villagers that they had got to be
regular, without making examples now and then.

He had hoped very much to get through his call without coming across
Freeland's wife and children, and was greatly relieved to find Tod,
seated on a window-sill in front of his cottage, smoking, and gazing
apparently at nothing. In taking the other corner of the window-sill,
the thought passed through his mind that Freeland was really a very
fine-looking fellow. Tod was, indeed, about Malloring's own height of
six feet one, with the same fairness and straight build of figure and
feature. But Tod's head was round and massive, his hair crisp and uncut;
Malloring's head long and narrow, his hair smooth and close-cropped.
Tod's eyes, blue and deep-set, seemed fixed on the horizon, Malloring's,
blue and deep-set, on the nearest thing they could light on. Tod smiled,
as it were, without knowing; Malloring seemed to know what he was smiling
at almost too well. It was comforting, however, that Freeland was as shy
and silent as himself, for this prod