"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