with the world at all?" demanded Antony, going down
towards the gate.

"It's that fellow Curtis," said Job briefly, leaning on the gate.

"And what'll he have been up to now?" asked Antony. It would not be the
first time he had heard tales of the agent.

Job kicked the gate.

"Says he's wanting my cottage for a chauffeur he's getting down from
Bristol, and I'm to turn out at the end of August."

"Devil take the man!" cried Antony. "Why can't his new chauffeur be
living in the room above the garage, like the old one?"

Job grunted. "Because this one's a married man."

"And where are you to go at all?" demanded a wrathful Antony.

"He says I can have the cottage over to Crossways," said Job. "He knows
'tis three mile farther from my work. But that's not all. 'Tis double the
rent, and I can't afford it. And that's the long and short of it."

Antony dug his hoe savagely into the earth.

"Why can't he be putting his own chauffeur there, and be paying him wage
enough for the higher rent?" he asked.

"Why can't he?" said Job bitterly. "Because he won't. He's had his knife
into me ever since March last, when I paid up my rent which he thought I
couldn't do. I'd been asking him for time; then the last day--well, I got
the money. I wasn't going to tell him how I got it, and he thought I'd
been crying off with no reason. See? Now he thinks he can force me to the
higher rent. 'Tis a bigger cottage, but 'tis so far off, even well-to-do
folk fight shy of the extra walk, and so it's stood empty a year and
more. Now he's thinking he'll force my hand."

Antony frowned.

"What'll you do?" he demanded.

"The Lord knows," returned Job gloomily. "If I chuck up my work here, how
do I know I'll get a job elsewhere? If I go to the other place I'll be
behind with my rent for dead certain, and get kicked out of that, and be
at the loss of ten shillings or so for the move. I've not told the wife
yet. But I can see nought for it but to look out for a job elsewhere.
Wish I'd never set foot in this blasted little Devonshire village. Wish
I'd stayed in my own parts."

Antony was making a mental survey of affairs, a survey at once detailed
yet rapid.

"Look here," said he, "I'd give a pretty good deal to get even with that
old skinflint, I would that. You and your wife just shift up along with
me. There's an extra room upstairs with nothing in it at all. We'll
manage top hole. Sure, 'twill be fine havin' me cooking done for me. You