ld me
that _he_ would have had nothing whatever to do with closing
them, nor with anything 'agin the Government! He's a staunch
old soul, is Forest. So when father told him what he wanted, he
didn't know what to make of it. However, they both groped their
way through the fog, which was thick on the other side of the
park, and set to at the gates. Forest says it was an awful
business to get everything cleared away. Father and Gregson had
made an uncommonly good job of it. If Gregson had put in work
like that on his own hedges and gates, Forest says he mightn't
have been kicked out! It took them ages getting the barbed
wire cleared away, because they hadn't any proper nippers.
Father took off his coat, and worked like a navvy, and Forest
hoisted him up to get at the wire along the wall. Forest says
he was determined to leave nothing! "And I believe, Miss, the
Squire was very glad of the fog--because there couldn't be any
one prying around."

'For it seems to be really true that the village has been in a
state of ferment, and that they had determined to free the
gates and let in the Council plough. Perley was seen talking to
a lot of men on the green last night. I met him myself this
morning after breakfast near the gates, and he confessed he had
been there already--early. I expect he came to reconnoitre and
take back the news. Rather calm, for one of father's own men!
But that's the new spirit, Dezzy. We're not going to be allowed
to have it all our own way any more. Well, thank goodness, I
don't mind. At least, there is something in me that minds. I
suppose it's one's forbears. But the greater part of me wants a
_lot_ of change--and there are often and often times when I
wish I'd been born in the working-class and was just struggling
upwards with them, and sharing all their hopes and dreams for
"after the war." Well, why shouldn't I? I'm going to set
Broomie on to some of the cottages in the village--not that
she'll want setting on--but after all, it's I who know the
people.

'But that's by the way. The point is why did father give in?
Evidently because Broomie gave notice, and he couldn't bear the
idea of parting with her. Of course Alice--and Margaret too, to
some extent--are convinced it all means that father wants to
marr