the truth were told, bewilderment.

* * * * *

The Squire shut the door upon his adversary, and then, with his
hands on his sides, exploded in a fit of laughter.

'I always knew I must be rude to the old boy some time,' he said,
with the glee of a mischievous child. 'But, ye gods, how his
feathers drooped! He looked like a plucked cockatoo as he went out.'

He stood thinking a moment, and then with a look of sudden
determination he went to his writing-table and sat down to it.
Drawing a writing-pad towards him, he wrote as follows:

'MY DEAR AUBREY--Your future father-in-law has just been
insulting and harrying me in ways which no civilized State had
ever heard of before the war. He is the Chairman of a
ridiculous body that calls itself the County War Agricultural
Committee, that lays absurd eggs in the shape of sub-Committees
to vex landlords. They have been going about among my farmers
and want me to turn out three of them. I decline, so I suppose
they'll do it for me. And they're going to plough up a lot of
the park--without my leave. And Chicksands is the head and
front of the whole business. He came here to-day to try and
coax me into submission. But I would neither be coaxed nor
bullied. I've broken with him; and if my children stand by me
properly, they'll break with him too. I really don't see how
you're going to marry Beryl after this. At least, I shall
certainly not help you to do it, and if you defy me you must