r two seconds the
thought flashed through him: Ought I to have considered whether I could
agree to that demand? Gone in another flash. If there was one thing a
man could not tolerate, it was dictation! Out of the question! But
perhaps he had been a little hasty about strike-breakers. Was there not
still time to save the situation from that, if he caught the first train?
The personal touch was everything. If he put it to the men on the spot,
with these strike-breakers up his sleeve, surely they must listen! After
all, they were his own people. And suddenly he was overcome with
amazement that they should have taken such a step. What had got into
them? Spiritless enough, as a rule, in all conscience; the sort of
fellows who hadn't steam even to join the miniature rifle-range that he
had given them! And visions of them, as he was accustomed to pass them
in the lanes, slouching along with their straw bags, their hoes, and
their shamefaced greetings, passed before him. Yes! It was all that
fellow Freeland's family! The men had been put up to it--put up to it!
The very wording of their demand showed that! Very bitterly he thought
of the unneighborly conduct of that woman and her cubs. It was
impossible to keep it from his wife! And so he told her. Rather to his
surprise, she had no scruples about the strike-breakers. Of course, the
hay must be saved! And the laborers be taught a lesson! All the
unpleasantness he and she had gone through over Tryst and that Gaunt girl
must not go for nothing! It must never be said or thought that the
Freeland woman and her children had scored over them! If the lesson were
once driven home, they would have no further trouble.

He admired her firmness, though with a certain impatience. Women never
quite looked ahead; never quite realized all the consequences of
anything. And he thought: 'By George! I'd no idea she was so hard!
But, then, she always felt more strongly about Tryst and that Gaunt girl
than I did.'

In the hall the glass was still going down. He caught the 9.15, wiring
to his agent to meet him at the station, and to the impresario of the
strike-breakers to hold up their departure until he telegraphed. The
three-mile drive up from the station, fully half of which was through his
own land, put him in possession of all the agent had to tell: Nasty
spirit abroad--men dumb as fishes--the farmers, puzzled and angry, had
begun cutting as best they could. Not a m