etter do with these fellows? Do you
think they will take the twenty per cent.?'

''Tis impossible to say. Gad! the Lague is gittin' stronger ivery day,
Barton. But they ought to take it; twenty per cent. will bring it very
nearly to Griffith's.'

'But if they don't take it?'

'Well, I don't know what we will do, for notices it is impossible to
serve. Gad! I'll never forgit how we were pelted the other day--such
firing of stones, such blawing of horns! I think you'll have to give
them the thirty; but we'll thry them at twinty-foive.'

'And if they won't take it--?'

'What! the thirty? They'll take that and jumping, you needn't fear. Here
they come.'

Turning, the two men watched the twenty or thirty peasants who, with
heads set against the gusts, advanced steadily up the avenue, making way
for a horseman; and from the drawing-room window Mrs. Barton recognized
the square-set shoulders of Captain Hibbert. After shaking hands and
speaking a few words with Mr. Barton, he trotted round to the stables;
and when he walked back and entered the house, in all the clean-cut
elegance of military boots and trousers, the peasants lifted their hats,
and the interview began.

'Now, boys,' said Mr. Barton, who thought that a little familiarity
would not be inappropriate, 'I've asked you to meet me so that we might
come to some agreement about the rents. We've known each other a long
time, and my family has been on this estate I don't know for how many
generations. Therefore--why, of course, I should be very sorry if we had
any falling out. I don't know much about farming, but I hear everyone
say that this has been a capital year, and . . . I think I cannot do better
than to make you again the same offer as I made you before--that is to
say, of twenty per cent, abatement all round; that will bring your rents
down to Griffith's valuation.'

Mr. Barton had intended to be very impressive, but, feeling that words
were betraying him, he stopped short, and waited anxiously to hear what
answer the peasant who had stepped forward would make. The old man began
by removing a battered tall-hat, out of which fell a red handkerchief.
The handkerchief was quickly thrown back into the crown, and, at an
intimation from Mr. Barton, hat and handkerchief were replaced upon the
white head. He then commenced:

'Now, yer honour, the rints is too high; we cannot pay the present rint,
at least without a reduction. I have been a tinent on the property