A. E. W. Mason

“ Dick interrupted from the bay of the window. A woman had come out from the cottage. She unlatched a little gate in her garden which opened on to the meadow. She crossed it. Yet another gate gave her entrance to the garden of Little Beeding. In a moment Hubbard announced:
"Mrs. Ballantyne"; and Stella came into the room and stood near to the door with a certain constraint in her attitude and a timid watchfulness in her big eyes. She had the look of a deer. It seemed to Dick that at one abrupt movement she would turn and run. ”

“ Dick expressed no anxiety for the quick advent of that day.
"How many are there of us to be at luncheon?" asked Dick.
"Only the two of us."
"I see. We are to keep the danger in the family. Very wise, sir, upon my word."
"Richard, you pervert my meaning," said Mr. Hazlewood. "The neighbourhood has not been kind to Mrs. Ballantyne. She has been made to suffer. The Vicar's wife, for instance—a most uncharitable person. And my sister, your Aunt Margaret, too, in Great Beeding—she is what you would call——"
"Hot stuff," murmured Dick. ”

“ He thinks that without an army and a navy we should be less aggressive. I can't deny it."
"I should think not indeed," cried Mr. Chubble. "Are you walking home?"
"Yes."
"Let us walk together." Mr. Chubble took Dick Hazlewood by the arm and as they went filled the lane with his plaints.
"I should think you can't deny it. Why, he has actually written a pamphlet to enforce his views upon the subject."
"You should bless your stars, Mr. Chubble, that there is only one. He suffers from pamphlets. He writes 'em and prints 'em and every member of Parliament gets one of 'em for nothing. ”

“ He came out with his son into the porch of the house.
"We have done a fine thing to-day, Richard," he said with enthusiasm and a nod towards the cottage beyond the meadow.
"We have indeed, sir," returned Dick cheerily. "Did you ever see such a pair of ankles?"
"She lost the tragic look this afternoon, Richard. We must be her champions."
"We will put in the summer that way, father," said Dick, and waving his hand was driven off to the station.
Mr. Hazlewood walked back to the library. But "walked" is a poor word. He seemed to float on air. A great opportunity had come to him. ”

“ Dick, however, took no heed of that. He spoke slowly as one lecturing to an obtuse class of scholars.
"My father was born predestined to believe that all the people whom he knows are invariably wrong, and all the people he doesn't know are invariably right. ”

“ Arthur was a bachelor and thus Harold Hazlewood came quite unexpectedly into the position of a country squire when he was already well on in middle age. He was a widower and a man of a noticeable aspect. At the first glance you knew that he was not as other men ”