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“Aye–but I noticed you was a hand short, an’ I thowt as ‘appen you’d gie me half a day.”

“What, are youany good in a hay close?” asked Henry, with a sneer.

The man stood slouching against the haystack. All the others were seated on the floor. He had an advantage.

“I could work aside any on yer,” he bragged.

“Tha looks it,” laughed Bill.

“And what’s your regular trade?” asked the father.

“I’m a jockey by rights. But I did a bit o’ dirty work for a boss o’ mine, an’ I was landed.”Egot the benefit, Igot kicked out.”Eaxed me–an’ then ‘e looked as if ‘e’d never seed me.”

“Did he, though!” exclaimed the father sympathetically.

“‘E did that!” asserted the man.

“But we’ve got nothing for you,” said Henry coldly.

“What does the boss say?” asked the man, impudent.

“No, we’ve no work you can do,” said the father.”You can have a bit o’ something
to eat, if you like.”

“I should be glad of it,” said the man.

He was given the chunk of rabbit pie that remained. This he ate greedily. There was something debased, parasitic, about him, which disgusted Henry. The others regarded him as a curiosity.

“That was nice and tasty,” said the tramp, with gusto.

“Do you want a piece of bread ‘n’ cheese?” asked the father.

“It’ll help to fill up,” was the reply.

The man ate this more slowly. The company was embarrassed by his presence, and could not talk. All the men lit their pipes, the meal over.

“So you dunna want any help?” said the tramp at last.

“No–we can manage what bit there is to do.”

“You don’t happen to have a fill of bacca to spare, do you?”

The father gave him a good pinch.

“You’re all right here,” he said, looking round. They resented this familiarity. However, he filled his clay pipe and smoked with the rest.

As they were sitting silent, another figure came through the gap in the hedge, and noiselessly approached. It was a woman. She was rather small and finely made. Her face was small, very ruddy, and comely, save for the look of bitterness and aloofness that it wore. Her hair was drawn tightly back under a sailor hat. She gave an impression of cleanness, of precision and directness.

“Have you got some work?” she asked of her man. She ignored the rest. He tucked his tail between his legs.

“No, they haven’t got no work for me. They’ve just gave me a draw of bacca.”

He was a mean crawl of a man.

“An’ am I goin’ to wait for you out there on the lane all day?”

“You needn’t if you don’t like. You could go on.”

“Well, are you coming?” she asked contemptuously. He rose to his feet in a rickety fashion.

“You needn’t be in such a mighty hurry,” he said.”If you’d wait a bit you might get summat.”

She glanced for the first time over the men. She was quite young, and would have been pretty, were she not so hard and callous-looking.

“Have you had your dinner?” asked the father.

She looked at him with a kind of anger, and turned away. Her face was so childish in its contours, contrasting strangely with her expression.

“Are you coming?” she said to the man.

“He’s had his tuck-in. Have a bit, if you want it,” coaxed the father.

“What have you had?” she flashed to the man.

“He’s had all what was left o’ th’ rabbit pie,” said Geoffrey, in an indignant, mocking tone, “and a great hunk o’ bread an’ cheese.”

“Well, it was gave me,” said the man.

The young woman looked at Geoffrey, and he at her. There was a sort of kinship between them. Both were at odds with the world. Geoffrey smiled satirically. She was too grave, too deeply incensed even to smile.

“There’s a cake here, though–you can have a bit o’ that,” said Maurice blithely.

She eyed him with scorn.

Again she looked at Geoffrey. He seemed to understand her. She turned, and in silence departed. The man remained obstinately sucking at his pipe. Everybody looked at him with hostility.

“We’ll be getting to work,” said Henry, rising, pulling off his coat. Paula got to her feet. She was a little bit confused by the presence of the tramp.

“I go,” she said, smiling brilliantly. Maurice rose and followed her sheepishly.

“A good grind, eh?” said the tramp, nodding after the Fräulein. The men only half-understood him, but they hated him.