After ten days she returned, and Abner began to visit the Pound House again. He found her imperious and exacting, she could not see too much of him. Bastard reported him to Badger as a regular attendant at the inn. ‘You needn’t trouble about that young Fellows,’ he said. ‘He’s after other game.’ ‘There’s no game here to speak on but ours,’ said Badger stupidly. ‘Ah, it’s a different kind I mean,’ said the constable. ‘That girl of Hind’s is looking after him. Any night of the week if you want to see a picture you can watch her take him in by the back door when the old man’s asleep upstairs.’ Badger went livid and swore so violently as to shock the constable’s principles. ‘I don’t believe it,’ he said, ‘not a word of it.’ ‘Seeing’s believing,’ said Bastard. ‘At any rate seeing’s good enough for me.’ All thought of the poachers vanished from Badger’s single mind. He left the constable in the middle of their conversation and went straight to the Pound House, where he found Susie alone, making a petticoat from a pattern that she had bought in Hereford. She could see by his stormy entrance that something had upset him and switched on her most ingratiating manner. ‘Well, it is a time since I’ve seen you, Mr Badger,’ she said, laying aside her work. ‘Will you have something?’ He wouldn’t drink; he refused to waste time in preliminary skirmishing. ‘You’re not going to get round me that way,’ he said. ‘What’s this about you and that chap Fellows?’ ‘Fellows?’ said Susie. ‘What Fellows is that?’ ‘Now don’t start that game on me,’ said Badger angrily. ‘I’ve seen there was something up with you for the last month. Now I know what it is. You can’t go on like that with me. I’m not that kind of man.’ ‘And I’m not that kind of girl, Mr Badger,’ said Susie. ‘I thought better of you, indeed I did.’ ‘You can drop all that,’ said Badger, with a laugh. ‘You can let on you’re as innocent as a lamb, but I know better. Understand that!’ ‘If that’s what you mean, I can tell you straight I’m not going to listen to your dirty tongue. I’m not accustomed to be spoke to by my friends like that.’ She rose indignantly and would have gone into the kitchen but he caught hold of her arm. ‘You don’t deny it,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t demean myself.’ She tried to wrench away from him, but he would not let her go. The warmth of her arm on his fingers made him mad. He wanted to use her roughly. She cried out with pain. ‘Don’t!’ she cried. ‘You’re hurting me!’ He wanted to hurt her. He only held her tighter. ‘Where’s your father?’ he said. ‘Father’s gone out,’ she said. ‘Oh, let me go!’ ‘Gone out, is he? Well, I’ll have a talk to him about this when he comes back. Then we’ll see . . .’ ‘You can tell him all the dirty lies you like,’ she said defiantly.