rs, he had found him a troublesome person to
deal with and, in his own words, a nuisance. Matters had come to a climax
after the tea at the cottage, when the squire had so completely
vanquished him, but since that evening the two had not met.

The opposition which John brought to bear against Mr. Juxon was not,
however, without its effect. The squire was in that state of mind in
which a little additional pressure sufficed to sway his resolutions.
It has been seen that he had for some time regarded Mrs. Goddard's
society as an indispensable element in his daily life; he had been so
much astonished at discovering this that he had absented himself for
several days and had finally returned ready to submit to his fate, in so
far as his fate required that he should see Mrs. Goddard every day.
Shortly afterwards John had appeared and by his persistent attempts to
monopolise Mrs. Goddard's conversation had again caused an interruption
in the squire's habits, which the latter had resented with characteristic
firmness. The very fact of having resisted John had strengthened and
given a new tone to Mr. Juxon's feelings towards his tenant. He began to
watch the hands of the clock with more impatience than formerly when,
after breakfast, he sat reading the papers before the library fire,
waiting for the hour when he was accustomed to go down to the cottage.
His interest in the papers decreased as his interest in the time of day
grew stronger, and for the first time in his life he found to his great
surprise that after reading the news of the day with the greatest care,
he was often quite unable to remember a word of what he had read. Then,
at first, he would be angry with himself and would impose upon himself
the task of reading the paper again before going to the cottage. But very
soon he found that he had to read it twice almost every day, and this
seemed such an unreasonable waste of time that he gave it up, and fell
into very unsystematic habits.

For some days, as though by mutual consent, neither Mrs. Goddard nor the
squire spoke of John Short. The squire was glad he was gone and hoped
that he would not come back, but was too kind-hearted to say so; Mrs.
Goddard instinctively understood Mr. Juxon's state of mind and did not
disturb his equanimity by broaching an unpleasant subject. Several days
passed by after John had gone and he would certainly not have been
flattered had he known that during that time two, out of the four pe