sked Halsey, with an evident
interest in the question.

"Oh, Lord, no!" said Batts placidly, "shan't try. But now about this
yoong woman an' Great End?--"

"Well, I ain't heared much about her--not yet awhile. But they say as
she's nice-lookin', an' Muster Shentsone ee said as she'd been to college
somewhere, where they'd larn't her farmin'."

Batts made a sound of contempt.

"College!" he said, with a twitching of the broad nostrils which seemed
to spread over half his face. "_They_ can't larn yer farmin'!"

"She's been on a farm too somewhere near Brighton, Muster Shenstone says,
since she was at college; and ee told me she do seem to be terr'ble
full o' new notions."

"She'd better be full o' money," said the other, cuttingly. "Notions is
no good without money to 'em."

"Aye, they're wunnerfull costly things is notions. Yo'd better by a long
way go by the folk as know. But they do say she'll be payin' good wages."

"I dessay she will! She'll be obleeged. It's Hobson's choice, as you
might say!" said Batts, chuckling again.

Halsey was silent, and the two old men trudged on with cheerful
countenances. Through the minds of both there ran pleasant thoughts
of the contrast between the days before the war and the days now
prevailing. Both of them could remember a wage of fifteen and sixteen
shillings a week. Then just before the war, it had risen to eighteen
shillings and a pound. And now--why the Wages Board for Brookshire had
fixed thirty-three shillings as a weekly minimum, and a nine-hours' day!
Prices were high, but they would go down some day; and wages would not go
down. The old men could not have told exactly why this confidence lay so
deep in them; but there it was, and it seemed to give a strange new
stability and even dignity to life. Their sons were fighting; and they
had the normal human affection for their sons. They wished the war to
end. But, after all, there was something to be said for the war.
They--old Peter Halsey and old Joe Batts--were more considered and more
comfortable than they would have been before the war. And it was the
consideration more even than the comfort that warmed their hearts.

The evening grew hotter, and the way to the village seemed long. The old
men were now too tired to talk; till just as they came in sight of the
first houses, they perceived the village wagonette coming towards them.

"There she be! I did hear as Webb wor to meet her at the station. He's
took her