-or thrown up his post.
The Mainstairs cottages for instance. We are in for another diphtheria
epidemic there. The conditions are simply horrible. Melrose, as before,
will do nothing, and defies anybody else to do anything; says he has
given the tenants notice that he intends to pull the cottages down, and
the people stay in them at their own peril. The local authority can do
nothing; the people say they have nowhere to go, and cling like limpets
to the rock. Melrose could put those sixteen cottages in order for a
couple of thousand pounds, which would be about as much to him as
half-a-crown to me. It is all insane pride and obstinacy--he won't be
dictated to--and the rest. I shall be a land-nationalizer if I hear much
more of Melrose.

"Meanwhile, Faversham will soon come in for his master's hideous
unpopularity, if he can't manage him better. He is looking white and
harassed, and seems to avoid persons like myself who might attack him.
But I gather that he has been trying to come round Melrose by attempting
some reforms behind his back, and probably with his own money. Something,
for instance, was begun at Mainstairs, while Melrose was away in Holland,
after the fresh diphtheria cases broke out. There was an attempt made to
get at the pollutions infecting the water supply, and repairs were begun
on the worst cottage.

"But in the middle Melrose came home, and was, I believe, immediately
informed of what was going on by that low scoundrel Nash who used to
be his factotum, and has shown great jealousy of Faversham since his
appointment. What happened exactly I can't say, but from something old
Dixon said to me the other day--I have been attending him for
rheumatism--I imagine there was a big row between the two men. Why
Faversham didn't throw up there and then, I can't understand. However
there he is still, immersed they tell me in the business of the estate,
but incessantly watched and hampered by Melrose himself, an extraordinary
development in so short a time; and able, apparently, even if he is
willing, which I assume--to do little or nothing to meet the worst
complaints of the tenants. They are beginning to turn against him
furiously.

"Last week the sight of Mainstairs and the horrible suffering there got
on my nerves. I sat down and wrote to Melrose peremptorily demanding a
proper supply of antitoxin at once, at his expense. A post-card from him
arrived, refusing, and bidding me apply to a Socialist government