‘Yes, I see’d her, but not afore she was wellnigh cold.’ ‘How did she come to go off sudden like that, eh?’ ‘If you want to know what I thinks, Mr Prosser, I’ll tell you. That cow she died of violent neglect. I’ve had my eye on her some days now.’ ‘Then why the devil didn’t you say so?’ ‘Me and Fellows don’t speak to one another, and you was gone off to the sales.’ ‘Why didn’t you tell Miss Marion, then?’ ‘It’s no good talking to Miss Marion about he. Her wouldn’t hear a word against Fellows, though he be no more fit to look after cows than rabbits, and I know for why.’ Harris shook his head knowingly. ‘What do you mean by that? Why don’t you speak plain?’ ‘And I will speak plain, Mr Prosser, though I don’t know where your eyes have been if you haven’t seed it for yourself. Miss Marion’s soft on that Fellows, and he knows it and takes advantage on it.’ Prosser gave an uneasy laugh. ‘You don’t get me to believe that,’ he said. ‘You can believe it or not, gaffer,’ said Harris. ‘It’s all the same to me. I’m only telling you of what I knows, and what I’ve seen with my own eyes. When Daisy was dying that Fellows was in your own kitchen and the two of them kissing one another, so took up they never saw me coming. And that’s the truth, as I’m standing here!’ Prosser could only stare at him. ‘You ought to have known the name that chap has with women. There’s Mr Hind’s daughter over at the Pound House; there’s George Malpas’s wife, not counting those that was never found out. He’s a proper young bull, that Fellows, and no mistake!’ The farmer left him in a fury. He found Marion laying the supper-table in the dining-room. Ethel was crouched by the fire reading a book of fairy-tales. ‘You go out into the kitchen, Ethel,’ he said. ‘I want to talk to Marion.’ ‘I’m so comfy here, dad,’ said the child sleepily. ‘Do as you’re bid!’ he shouted, and Ethel, frightened, left the room. ‘You’ve scared her,’ said Marion. ‘She’s not used to being spoken to like that.’ ‘No,’ said he, ‘and it ’ld be better for the both of you if you were. Just you put those things down and tell me the truth about Fellows.’ ‘What do you mean, father?’ she asked. ‘I’ve told you he did all he could. He sat up with her.’ ‘And that’s a damned lie to start with! Sat up with her, did he? Sat up spooning in the kitchen along with you. That’s more like it!’ She blushed, then straightened herself and faced him with her hands clasped before her. He was almost frightened of her burning eyes. ‘Who told you that?’ she said quietly. ‘Never you mind who told me. They that told me saw it with their own eyes. Saw you behaving like a labourer’s girl in a hedge. That’s a fine thing to come to! You deny it if you can!’ ‘I’m not going to deny it,’ she said. ‘Then you’ve no shame left in you. Thank God your poor mother hasn’t lived to see it! I never thought to hear a daughter of mine speak like that!’