Doctor's as put that around, but us thinks her got the notion
in a way her shouldn't, for her's backed out o' the sayin' o't now. Says
her never said nowt o' the kind. But her did. 'Twas Jim Morris's wife her
told. S'pose Mr. Curtis'll run t'show till t'heir turns oop. 'Twont make
much difference to we. He's run it the last ten year and more, and run it
_hard_, I tell 'ee that. Doant yue go for to get the wrong side o' Spencer
Curtis, I warns 'ee. George Standing afore 'e worn't much to boast on,
but Spencer Curtis be a fair flint."

"Will he be the agent?" demanded Antony, as the man paused.

"'Tis what 'e's _called_. 'Tis master he _is_. T'old Squire oughtn't
never to have got a chap like 'e to do 'is jobs. 'Tis cast iron 'e is.
And 'twasn't never no use going to Squire for to stand between him and
we. 'E'd never set eyes on nobody, 'e wouldn't. If I'd my way I'd give
every gentry what owns property a taste o' livin' on it same's we. 'E'd
know a bit more aboot the fair runnin' o' it then."

Antony started. An idea, quick-born, presented itself before him. Was it
possible, was it conceivable, that this very thought had been in the old
Squire's mind when he drew up those extraordinary conditions? Antony
nearly laughed aloud. Verily it was an absurdity, though one that
Nicholas Danver most assuredly could not have guessed. Yet that
he--Antony--should require a further year's enlightenment as to the
shifts to which the poor were put to make both ends meet, as to the iron
hand of agents and over-seers! Truly it was laughable!

He'd had experience enough and to spare,--he smiled grimly to
himself,--experience such as an English farm-labourer earning a pound a
week, even with a wife and children to keep, and all odds against him,
could never in the remotest degree aided by the wildest flights of
imagination, conceive. In England water at least is always obtainable.
Antony had visions of the jealous husbanding of a few drops of hot
moisture in a sunbaked leather bottle. In England the law at least
protects you from bodily ill-treatment at the hands of agent or overseer.
Antony had visions--But he dismissed them. There was a chapter or two in
his life which it was not good to recall.

They were descending now, driving between the high banks and hedges of a
true Devonshire lane. Primroses starred the banks, though in less
profusion than they had been a fortnight earlier; bluebells and pink
campion grew among them, and the f