"She 'ad to go away," he said.
"Wouldn't her parents," I began, and hesitated on the word "forgive."
"Oh, her people forgave her," he said. "But Her Ladyship..."
"Her Ladyship made the sun and moon and stars," I said, impatiently.
"So of course she can come between a mother and the child of her body."
"Well, it does seem a bit 'ard ..." he began with a break in his voice.
"But, good Lord, man," I cried, "it isn't a matter of hardness!
It's a matter of impious and indecent wickedness. If your Sir Joseph
knew the passions he was playing with, he did you a wrong for which
in many Christian countries he would have a knife in him."
The man continued to look across the frozen fields with a frown.
He certainly told his tale with real resentment, whether it
was true or false, or only exaggerated. He was certainly sullen
and injured; but he did not seem to think of any avenue of escape.
At last he said:
"Well, it's a bad world; let's 'ope there's a better one."
"Amen," I said. "But when I think of Sir Joseph, I understand
how men have hoped there was a worse one."
Then we were silent for a long time and felt the cold of the day
crawling up, and at last I said, abruptly:
"The other day at a Budget meeting, I heard."
He took his elbows off the stile and seemed to change from
head to foot like a man coming out of sleep with a yawn.
He said in a totally new voice, louder but much more careless,
"Ah yes, sir,.
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