THREE:"Love Ino. I've loved but one woman."Of course, one reason why David and Billy were so free was because of the growing prosperity of the farm, which no longer made it necessary to save and scrape. But on the other hand, it was a fact that the m?aster had learned summat by the others. He was resolved that, come what might, he would keep these boys. They should not leave him like their brothers; and since harshness had failed to keep those at home, he would now try a slacker rule. He was growing old, and he wanted to think that at his death Odiam would pass into loyal and loving hands, he wanted to think of its great traditions being carried on in all their glory. Sometimes he would have terrible dreams of Odiam being divided at his death, split up into allotments and small-holdings, scrapped into building plots. Such dreams made him look with hungry tenderness at the two little figures trotting hand in hand about the orchard and the barns.
THREE:He then turned to the small householders and shop-keepers, dazzling them with visions of Gladstone's free breakfast tablehe even invited the more prominent ones to an untaxed breakfast in the Town Hall; whereat the Colonel, at Reuben's instigation, retaliated with a sumptuous dinner, which he said would be within the reach of every farmer when a moderate wheat-tax no longer forced him to undersell his harvests.
THREE:"I did, lady, and my heart rejoicedeven as a father at sight of his children!" a slight tinge passing over his cheek.While she spoke, her eyes brightened, and her pale face for a short time glowed with the fervor of her soul.
TWO:"Let the prisoner be brought up for judgment?" said Skipwith to the officer in waiting."The dagger, knave," muttered Tyler, still intent on humbling the proud sword-bearer, and raising his axe in a menacing attitude.