had thought of it and she hadn't made the
suggestion. I don't want Sadie interfering with our house."

"But you don't dislike Mrs. Charnock."

"Not in a way; but I don't know that I want to see her here. Sadie has
a number of good points, but she's rather fond of managing other folks'
affairs. Then she's not your kind."

On the whole, Helen was not displeased. Mrs. Charnock's bold statements
that she could have got Stephen if she had wanted had jarred, but it
looked as if she had made an empty boast.

"I thought you were a democrat," she remarked, smiling.

"So I am, in general; but when it's a matter of choosing my wife's
friends, I'm an exclusive aristocrat. That's the worst of having
theories; they don't apply all round."

Helen thought his utilitarian dislike of idleness was open to this
objection, but it was not the time to urge Bob's cause. She would wait
for another opportunity, when Stephen had not been delayed, and she made
him a humorous curtsey.

"Sometimes you're rather bearish, and sometimes you're very nice," she
said, and went into the house.

The Charnocks returned a week later and came again at regular intervals,
while Helen rode over to their house now and then. Festing refused
to accompany her and sometimes grumbled, but on the whole tolerated
Charnock's visits so long as they did not delay his work. Nothing must
be allowed to interfere with that, for he was uneasily conscious that
he had set himself too big a task. His dislike to using his wife's money
had spurred him on, and he had sown a very large crop at a heavy expense
for labor, horses, and machines. Now he must spare no effort to get his
money back, and much depended on the weather. Indeed, he was beginning
to feel the strain of the unrelaxing exertion and care about details,
and this sometimes reacted upon his temper. Still he must hold out until
the crop was reaped, after which he could go easy during the winter
months.

One hot afternoon, he lay under a mower in a sloo where the melted snow
had run in spring and the wild grass now grew tall. It made good hay and
the fierce sun had dried it well, so that he had only to cut and haul
it home; but something had gone wrong with the machine, and after taking
out the broken knife he dismantled the driving gear. When he crawled
out, with a greasy cogwheel in his hand, he was soaked with perspiration
and his overalls were stained by oil. The mosquitoes, that did not as a
rule venture out