Harvest | Page 5

the big windows with warm serge curtains to
draw over them in the winter. The floors must be stained. There should
be a deep Indian-red drugget in the sitting-room, with pigeon-blue
walls, and she thought complacently of the bits of old furniture she had
been collecting, which were stored in a friend's flat in town. An old
dresser, a grandfather's clock, some bits of brass, two arm-chairs, an
old oak table--it would all look very nice when it was done, and would
cost little. Then the bedrooms. She had brought with her some rolls of
flowery paper. She ran to fetch them from the wagonette, and pinned
some pieces against the wall. The larger room with the south aspect
should be Janet's. She would take the north room for herself. She saw
them both in her mind's eye already comfortably furnished; above all
fresh and bright. There should be no dirt or dinginess in the house, if
she could help it. In the country whitewash and distemper are cheap.
Then Hastings followed her about through the farm buildings, where
her quick eye, trained in modern ways, perceived a number of small
improvements to be made that he would never have noticed. She was
always ready, he saw, to spend money on things that would save labour
or lessen dirt. But she was not extravagant, and looking through the list
of her directions and commissions, as he hastily jotted them down, he
admitted to himself that she seemed to know what she was about. And
being an honest man himself, and good-tempered, though rather shy
and dull, he presently recognized the same qualities of honesty and
good temper in her; and took to her. Insensibly their tone to each other
grew friendly. Though he was temporarily in the landlord's employ, he
had been for some years in the service of the Wellin family.
Half-consciously he contrasted Miss Henderson's manner to him with
theirs. In his own view he had been worse treated than an ordinary farm

labourer throughout his farming life, though he had more education,
and was expected naturally to have more brains and foresight than the
labourer. He was a little better paid; but his work and that of his wife
was never done. He had got little credit for success and all the blame
for failure. And the Wellin women-folk had looked down on his wife
and himself. A little patronage sometimes, and worthless gifts, that
burnt in the taking; but no common feeling, no real respect. But Miss
Henderson was different. His rather downtrodden personality felt a
stimulus. He began to hope that when she came into possession she
would take him on. A woman could not possibly make anything of
Great End without a bailiff!
Her "nice" looks, no doubt, counted for something. Her face was,
perhaps, a little too full for beauty--the delicately coloured cheeks and
the large smiling mouth. But her brown eyes were very fine, with very
dark pupils, and marked eyebrows; and her nose and chin, with their
soft, blunted lines, seemed to promise laughter and easy ways. She was
very lightly and roundly made; and everything about her, her step, her
sunburn, her freckles, her evident muscular strength, spoke of open-air
life and physical exercise. Yet, for all this general aspect of a comely
country-woman, there was much that was sharply sensitive and
individual in the face. Even a stranger might well feel that its tragic, as
well as its humorous or tender possibilities, would have to be reckoned
with.
"All right!" said Miss Henderson at last, closing her little notebook
with a snap, "now I think we've been through everything. I'll take over
one cart, and Mrs. Wellin must remove the other. I'll buy the
chaff-cutter and the dairy things, but not the reaping machine--"
"I'm afraid that'll put Mrs. Wellin out considerably!" threw in Hastings.
"Can't help it. I can't have the place cluttered up with old iron like that.
It's worth nothing. I'm sure you wouldn't advise me to buy it!"
She looked with bright decision at her companion, who smiled a little
awkwardly, and said nothing. The old long habit of considering the
Wellin interest first, before any other in the world, held him still,
though he was no longer their servant.
Miss Henderson moved back towards the house.
"And you'll hurry these men up?--as much as you can? They are
slow-coaches! I must get in the week after next. Miss Leighton and I

intend to come, whatever happens."
Hastings understood that "Miss Leighton" was to be Miss Henderson's
partner in the farm, specially to look after the dairy work. Miss
Henderson seemed to think a lot of her.
"And you must please engage those two men you spoke of. Neither of
them, you say, under sixty! Well, there's