ther
flung it into an open drawer, which he shut with a snap. "Anyway,
that's the last of them for to-day. I'm awfully glad you drove over."

Agatha smiled. The action was so characteristic of the man. She had
once found no fault with Gregory's careless habits, and his way of
thrusting a difficulty into the background and making light of it had
appealed to her. It had suggested his ability to straighten out the
trouble when it appeared advisable. Now, she said, she would not be
absurdly hypercritical, and he had, as it happened, given her the lead
that she desired.

"I should have fancied that you would have had to give them more
attention as wheat is going down," she said.

Hawtrey looked at her with an air of reproach. "It must be nearly
three weeks since I have seen you, and now you expect me to talk of
farming." He made a whimsically rueful gesture. "If you quite
realised the situation it would be about the last thing you would ask
me to do."

Agatha was a little astonished to remember that three weeks had
actually elapsed since she had last met him, and they had only
exchanged a word or two then. He had certainly not obtruded himself
upon her, for which she was grateful.

"Nobody is talking about anything except the fall in prices just now,"
she persisted. "I suppose it affects you, too?"

The man, who seemed to accept this as a rebuff, looked at her rather
curiously, and then laughed.

"It must be admitted that it does. In fact, I've been acquiring
parsimonious habits and worrying myself about expenses lately. They
have to be kept down somehow, and that's a kind of thing I never took
kindly to."

"You feel it a greater responsibility when you're managing somebody
else's affairs?" suggested Agatha, who was still waiting her
opportunity.

"Well," said Hawtrey, in whom there was, after all, a certain honesty,
"that's not quite the only thing that has some weight with me. You
see, I'm not altogether disinterested. I get a certain percentage--on
the margin--after everything is paid, and I want it to be a big one.
Things are rather tight just now, and the wretched mortgage on my place
is crippling me."

It had slipped out before he quite realised what he was saying, and he
saw the girl's look of astonishment and concern. She now realised what
Sproatly had meant.

"You are in debt, Gregory? I thought you had, at least, kept clear of
that," she said.

"So I did--for a while. In any case