s a look with DAWKER who slips out
unobserved.]

HILLCRIST. You promised me, you know, not to change the tenancies.

HORNBLOWER. Well, I've come to tell ye that I have. I wasn't
expecting to have the need when I bought. Thought the Duke would
sell me a bit down there; but devil a bit he will; and now I must
have those cottages for my workmen. I've got important works, ye
know.

HILLCRIST. [Getting heated] The Jackmans have their importance
too, sir. Their heart's in that cottage.

HORNBLOWER. Have a sense of proportion, man. My works supply
thousands of people, and my, heart's in them. What's more, they
make my fortune. I've got ambitions--I'm a serious man. Suppose I
were to consider this and that, and every little potty objection--
where should I get to?--nowhere!

HILLCRIST. All the same, this sort of thing isn't done, you know.

HORNBLOWER. Not by you because ye've got no need to do it. Here ye
are, quite content on what your fathers made for ye. Ye've no
ambitions; and ye want other people to have none. How d'ye think
your fathers got your land?

HILLCRIST. [Who has risen] Not by breaking their word.

HORNBLOWER. [Throwing out his, finger] Don't ye believe it. They
got it by breaking their word and turnin' out Jackmans, if that's
their name, all over the place.

MRS. H. That's an insult, Mr. Hornblower.

HORNBLOWER. No; it's a repartee. If ye think so much of these
Jackmans, build them a cottage yourselves; ye've got the space.

HILLCRIST. That's beside the point. You promised me, and I sold on
that understanding.

HORNBLOWER. And I bought on the understandin' that I'd get some
more land from the Duke.

HILLCRIST. That's nothing to do with me.

HORNBLOWER. Ye'll find it has; because I'm going to have those
cottages.

HILLCRIST. Well, I call it simply----

[He checks himself.]

HORNBLOWER. Look here, Hillcrist, ye've not had occasion to
understand men like me. I've got the guts, and I've got the money;
and I don't sit still on it. I'm going ahead because I believe in
meself. I've no use for sentiment and that sort of thing. Forty of
your Jackmans aren't worth me little finger.

HILLCRIST. [Angry] Of all the blatant things I ever heard said!

HORNBLOWER. Well, as we're speaking plainly, I've been thinkin'.
Ye want the village run your oldfashioned way, and I want it run
mine. I fancy there's not room for the two of us here.

MRS. H. When