gie had been the first to
notice the stubborn silence. Then their friends noticed it, especially
Mr Liversage, the solicitor, their most intimate friend. But you are
not to suppose that anybody protested very strongly. For John and
Robert were not the kind of men with whom liberties may be taken; and,
moreover, Bursley was slightly amused--at the beginning. It assumed the
attitude of a disinterested spectator at a fight. It wondered who would
win. Of course, it called both the brothers fools, yet in a tone
somewhat sympathetic, because such a thing as had occurred to the
Hessians might well occur to any man gifted with the true Bursley
spirit. There is this to be said for a Bursley man: Having made his
bed, he will lie on it, and he will not complain.

The Hessians suffered severely by their self-imposed dumbness, but they
suffered like Stoics. Maggie also suffered, and Maggie would not stand
it. Maggie it was who had invented the slate. Indeed, they had heard
some plain truths from that stout, bustling woman. They had not
yielded, but they had accepted the slate in order to minimize the
inconvenience to Maggie, and afterwards they deigned to make use of it
for their own purposes. As for friends--friends accustomed themselves
to the status quo. There came a time when the spectacle of two men
chattering to everybody else in a company, and not saying a word to
each other, no longer appealed to Bursley's sense of humour. The silent
scenes at which Maggie assisted every day did not, either, appeal to
Maggie's sense of humour, because she had none. So the famous feud grew
into a sort of elemental fact of Nature. It was tolerated as the
weather is tolerated. The brothers acquired pride in it; even Bursley
regarded it as an interesting municipal curiosity. The sole
imperfection in a lovely and otherwise perfect quarrel was that John
and Robert, being both employed at Roycroft's Majolica Manufactory, the
one as works manager and the other as commercial traveller, were
obliged to speak to each other occasionally in the way of business.
Artistically, this was a pity, though they did speak very sternly and
distantly. The partial truce necessitated by Roycroft's was confined
strictly to Roycroft's. And when Robert was not on his journeys, these
two tall, strong, dark, bearded men might often be seen of a night
walking separately and doggedly down Oldcastle Street from the works,
within five yards of each other.

And no one sugges