. Otherwise, she
did not let herself appear to have heard him.

The discussion hung.

"Say three shillings, then," I suggested again.

"That 'll du," returned Mrs Widger, allowing nothing of the last few
minutes' brain-work to show itself in her voice.

[Sidenote: _HOTEL LIFE_]

Mrs Widger knows what it is to have to keep house and feed several
hungry children on earnings which vary from fairly large sums (sums
whose very largeness calls for immediate spending) to nothing at all
for weeks together.

As I was setting out, Jimmy said to his mother: "Don' 'ee let Mister
Ronals go, Mam 'Idger." He followed me to the end of the Gut; would
have come farther had I not sent him back. That, and Tony's desire to
make me welcome, brightened the bright South Devon sunshine. I kept
within sight of the sea as long as possible. The little sailing boats
on it looked so nimble. I have a leaning to go back, a sort of
hunger....

2

[Sidenote: _DAWDLING v. WALKING_]

I don't think I can remain here. To-morrow I shall move on, and tramp
around the county back to Seacombe. The Moor is as splendid as ever,
but this hotel life, following so soon on the life of Under Town....
Though the good, well-cooked food, neither so greasy nor so starchy as
Mrs Widger's, is an agreeable change, I sit at the table d'hote and
rage within. I am compelled to hear a conversation that irritates me
almost beyond amusement at it. These people here are on holiday. Most
of them, by their talk, were never on anything else. They chirp in
lively or bored fashion, as the case may be, of the things that don't
matter, of the ornamentations, the superfluities and the relaxations of
life. At Tony Widger's they discuss--and much more merrily--the things
that do matter; the means of life itself. Here, they say: "Is the table
d'hote as good as it might be? Is the society what it might be? Is it
not a pity that there is no char-a-banc or a motor service to Cranmere
Pool and Yes Tor?" There, the equivalent question is: "Shall us hae
money to go through the winter? Shall us hae bread and scrape to eat?"
Here, a man wonders if in the strong moorland air some slight
non-incapacitating ailment will leave him: illness is inconvenient and
disappointing, but not ruinous. There, Tony wonders if the exposure and
continual boat-hauling are not taking too much out of him; if he is not
ageing before his time; if he will not be past earning before the
younger children are off