ooch
doin's never was."

Lady Brandon turned pale and pulled at her horse as if to back him out
of some danger. Her visitor, puzzled, asked the old man what he meant.

"There's goin' to be a proceyshon through the noo groups," he replied,
"an' the master can't stop 'em. Th'ave throon down the wall; three yards
of it is lyin' on Riverside Road. An' there's a parson with 'em, and a
flag. An' him that lives in Sallust's hoos, he's there, hoddin''em on."

"Thrown down the wall!" exclaimed Lady Brandon, scarlet with indignation
and pale with apprehension by turns. "What a disgraceful thing! Where
are the police? Chester, will you come with me and see what they are
doing? Sir Charles is no use. Do you think there is any danger?"

"There's two police," said the old man, "an' him that lives at Sallust's
dar'd them stop him. They're lookin' on. An' there's a parson among 'em.
I see him pullin' away at the wall with his own han's."

"I will go and see the fun," said Chester.

Lady Brandon hesitated. But her anger and curiosity vanquished her
fears. She overtook the bicycle, and they went together through the
gates and by the highroad to the scene the old man had described. A heap
of bricks and mortar lay in the roadway on each side of a breach in
the newly built wall, over which Lady Brandon, from her eminence on
horseback, could see, coming towards her across the pleasure ground, a
column of about thirty persons. They marched three abreast in good order
and in silence; the expression of all except a few mirthful faces being
that of devotees fulfilling a rite. The gravity of the procession was
deepened by the appearance of a clergyman in its ranks, which were
composed of men of the middle class, and a few workmen carrying a banner
inscribed THE SOIL or ENGLAND THE BIRTHRIGHT OF ALL HER PEOPLE. There
were also four women, upon whom Lady Brandon looked with intense
indignation and contempt. None of the men of the neighborhood had dared
to join; they stood in the road whispering, and occasionally venturing
to laugh at the jests of a couple of tramps who had stopped to see the
fun, and who cared nothing for Sir Charles.

He, standing a little way within the field, was remonstrating angrily
with a man of his own class, who stood with his back to the breach and
his hands in the pockets of his snuff-colored clothes, contemplating
the procession with elate satisfaction. Lady Brandon, at once suspecting
that this was the man from S