le at Joyfields. He and his sister feel most awfully
strongly about the laborers."

"Ah!" said Mr. Cuthcott, "the laborers! Queer how they're in the air,
all of a sudden."

"This girl hasn't been very good, and she has to go from the village, or
else her family have. He wants me to find a place for her in London."

"I see; and she hasn't been very good?"

"Not very." She knew that her cheeks were flushing, but her eyes felt
steady, and seeing that his eyes never moved, she did not mind. She went
on:

"It's Sir Gerald Malloring's estate. Lady Malloring--won't--"

She heard a snap. Mr. Cuthcott's mouth had closed.

"Oh!" he said, "say no more!"

'He CAN bite nicely!' she thought.

Mr. Cuthcott, who had begun lightly thumping the little table with his
open hand, broke out suddenly:

"That petty bullying in the country! I know it! My God! Those prudes,
those prisms! They're the ruination of half the girls on the--" He
looked at Nedda and stopped short. "If she can do any kind of work, I'll
find her a place. In fact, she'd better come, for a start, under my old
housekeeper. Let your cousin know; she can turn up any day. Name?
Wilmet Gaunt? Right you are!" He wrote it on his cuff.

Nedda rose to her feet, having an inclination to seize his hand, or
stroke his head, or something. She subsided again with a fervid sigh,
and sat exchanging with him a happy smile. At last she said:

"Mr. Cuthcott, is there any chance of things like that changing?"

"Changing?" He certainly had grown paler, and was again lightly thumping
the table. "Changing? By gum! It's got to change! This d--d
pluto-aristocratic ideal! The weed's so grown up that it's choking us.
Yes, Miss Freeland, whether from inside or out I don't know yet, but
there's a blazing row coming. Things are going to be made new before
long."

Under his thumps the little plates had begun to rattle and leap. And
Nedda thought: 'I DO like him.'

But she said anxiously:

"You believe there's something to be done, then? Derek is simply full of
it; I want to feel like that, too, and I mean to."

His face grew twinkly; he put out his hand. And wondering a little
whether he meant her to, Nedda timidly stretched forth her own and
grasped it.

"I like you," he said. "Love your cousin and don't worry."

Nedda's eyes slipped into the distance.

"But I'm afraid for him. If you saw him, you'd know."

"One's always afraid for the fellows t