"He’s always down--I grant that. ’The Corner House’ ban’t very lively nowadays." "He is down, and that’s a sign of a screw loose. Say nought, however, for ’twould be libel and land you in trouble; but mark me, the poor fellow changes from his old self, though never a cheerful creature since his wife went." They overtook a woman and both saluted Rhoda Bowden. She had just crossed Lether Tor bridge, and was proceeding by the road to Lowery. They talked concerning Mr. Shillabeer a while longer, and then Mr. Maunder mentioned Dorcas and her children. Whereupon from urbanity Rhoda lapsed into silence, soon bade them good-day, and turned off the main road into a lane. They passed on, and having left the track, Rhoda pursued the way she had chosen. It wound to her right, skirted a quarry on Lowery Tor, and returned to the main thoroughfare half a mile beyond. The detour was of no account, and yet, owing to this trivial incident, there happened presently an event that set rolling deep waves along the shore of chance. The rough footpath led directly behind Mr. Billy Screech’s cottage, and just as Rhoda was speeding by with her eyes turned from the place, the eldest child of Dorcas--a boy of more than three years old--fell headlong out of the hedge at her feet. The accident looked serious. For a moment her nephew lay motionless and silent, then he began to utter piercing screams and cry for his mother. The noise stilled Rhoda’s alarm and brought Dorcas flying from her cottage, with her mother-in-law after her. When they arrived at the hedge Rhoda had picked up her sister’s first-born, and was endeavouring to calm it. The lesser William Screech was found to have escaped with no worse hurt than fright and bruises. He was soon in his mother’s arms, and she handed him on to his grandmother. Dorcas thanked Rhoda and told the elder Mrs. Screech to depart; then, the opportunity being a good one, she descended into the road herself, set her face, shook her red fringe out of her eyes, and resolutely overtook Rhoda, who had hastened forward. "Stop, if you please," she said. "It’s a free country and you’ve no right to deny speech to any civil-spoken creature. I want to speak to you, and I’ll be obliged if you’ll listen for a minute. You can’t refuse to hear me." Even at this moment Rhoda was struck by the calm authority in her younger sister’s voice. She spoke as the superior woman, with all the weight of a husband, a family, and a home behind her. The aggressive personality of Dorcas was something new. "I don’t want to have aught to do with you," said Rhoda. "Nor I with you," answered the other. "But we’ve all got to do a lot of things we don’t like in this world--you and me among the rest."