Then another busy spring kept us apart a good bit, till one evening Noah Sweet came up, all on his own, with a bit of startling news.

“I wasn’t listening,” he said, “and I should feel a good bit put out if you thought I was; but passing the parlour door last Sunday, I heard the man at her again!  I catched the words, ’We’re neither of us growing any younger, Mary Blake,’ and then I passed on my way.  And coming back a bit later, with my ear open, out of respect for the missis, I heard the man kiss her—­I’ll swear he did—­for you can’t mistake the sound if once you’ve heard it.  And she made a noise like a kettle bubbling over.  And so of course, I felt that it would be doing less than my duty if I didn’t come over and tell you, because your sister’s eyes was red as fire at supper table, and ’twas very clear she’d been weeping a bucketful about it.  And me and my wife feel ’tis an outrageous thing and something ought to be done against the man.”

Well, I went over next morning, and Mary wouldn’t see me!  For the only time in all our lives, she wouldn’t see me.  And first I was properly angry with her, and next, of course, I thought how ’twas, and guessed the man had forbidden her to speak to me for fear of my power over her.  Him I couldn’t see neither, because he was gone to Plymouth.  Of course he’d gone for craft, that I shouldn’t tackle him.  So I left it there, and walked home very much enraged against Bob Battle.  Because I felt it was getting to be a proper struggle between him and me for Mary; and that it was about time I set to work against him in earnest.

The climax happened a week later, when the Lord’s Day came round again, and we went to church as usual.  Then a proper awful shock fell on me and my wife.

For at the appointed time, if the Reverend Batson didn’t ax ’em out!  “Robert Battle, bachelor, and Mary Blake, spinster, both of this parish,” he said; and so I knew the old rascal had gone too far at last and guessed it was time I took him in hand like a man.  I remember getting red-hot all over and feeling a rush of righteous anger fill my heart; and an angry man will do anything, so I got up in the eye of all the people—­an act very contrary to my nature, I’m sure.  The place swam before my eyes and I was only conscious of one thing:  my wife tugging at my tail to drag me down.  But nought could have shut me up at that tragical moment, and I spoke with a loud and steady voice.

“I deny it and defy it, Reverend Batson,” I said, when he asked if anybody knew ‘just cause’; and the people fluttered like a flock of geese, and parson made answer: 

“Then you will meet me in the vestry after Divine Service, Farmer Blake,” he answered, and so went on with his work.

After that I sat down, and my wife whispered; “Now you’ve done it, you silly gawk!”