ER. Gospel true. If ye want to know, my son Chearlie is
buyin' it this very minute.

MRS. H. [Turning with a start] What do you say?

HORNBLOWER. Ay, he's with the old lady she wants to sell, an'
she'll get her price, whatever it is.

HILLCRIST. [With deep anger] If that isn't a skin game, Mr.
Hornblower, I don't know what is.

HORNBLOWER. Ah! Ye've got a very nice expression there. "Skin
game!" Well, bad words break no bones, an' they're wonderful for
hardenin' the heart. If it wasn't for a lady's presence, I could
give ye a specimen or two.

MRS. H. Oh! Mr. Hornblower, that need not stop you, I'm sure.

HORNBLOWER. Well, and I don't know that it need. Ye're an
obstruction--the like of you--ye're in my path. And anyone in my
path doesn't stay there long; or, if he does, he stays there on my
terms. And my terms are chimneys in the Centry where I need 'em.
It'll do ye a power of good, too, to know that ye're not almighty.

HILLCRIST. And that's being neighbourly!

HORNBLOWER. And how have ye tried bein' neighbourly to me? If I
haven't a wife, I've got a daughter-in-law. Have Ye celled on her,
ma'am? I'm new, and ye're an old family. Ye don't like me, ye
think I'm a pushin' man. I go to chapel, an' ye don't like that.
I make things and I sell them, and ye don't like that. I buy land,
and ye don't like that. It threatens the view from your windies.
Well, I don't lie you, and I'm not goin' to put up with your
attitude. Ye've had things your own way too long, and now ye're not
going to have them any longer.

HILLCRIST. Will you hold to your word over those cottages?

HORNBLOWER. I'm goin' to have the cottages. I need them, and more
besides, now I'm to put up me new works.

HILLCRIST. That's a declaration of war.

HORNBLOWER. Ye never said a truer word. It's one or the other of
us, and I rather think it's goin' to be me. I'm the risin' and
you're the settin' sun, as the poet says.

HILLCRIST. [Touching the bell] We shall see if you can ride
rough-shod like this. We used to have decent ways of going about
things here. You want to change all that. Well, we shall do our
damnedest to stop you. [To FELLOWS at the door] Are the Jackmans
still in the house? Ask them to be good enough to come in.

HORNBLOWER. [With the first sign of uneasiness] I've seen these
people. I've nothing more to say to them. I told 'em I'd give 'em
five pounds to cover their moving.

HILLCRIS