THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF STORNHAM
The satin-skinned chestnut was one of the new horses now standing in the Stornham stables.There were several of them--a pair for the landau, saddle horses, smart young cobs for phaeton or dog cart, a pony for Ughtred--the animals necessary at such a place at Stornham.The stables themselves had been quickly put in order, grooms and stable boys kept them as they had not been kept for years.The men learned in a week's time that their work could not be done too well.
There were new carriages as well as horses.They had come from London after Lady Anstruthers and her sister returned from town.The horses had been brought down by their grooms--immensely looked after, blanketed, hooded, and altogether cared for as if they were visiting dukes and duchesses.
They were all fine, handsome, carefully chosen creatures.
When they danced and sidled through the village on their way to the Court, they created a sensation.Whosoever had chosen them had known his business.The older vehicles had been repaired in the village by Tread, and did him credit.
Fox had also done his work well.
Plenty more of it had come into their work-shops.Tools to be used on the estate, garden implements, wheelbarrows, lawn rollers, things needed about the house, stables, and cottages, were to be attended to.The church roof was being repaired.Taking all these things and the "doing up" of the Court itself, there was more work than the village could manage, and carpenters, bricklayers, and decorators were necessarily brought from other places.Still Joe Buttle and Sim Soames were allowed to lead in all such things as lay within their capabilities.It was they who made such a splendid job of the entrance gates and the lodges.It was astonishing how much was done, and how the sense of life in the air--the work of resulting prosperity, made men begin to tread with less listless steps as they went to and from their labour.In the cottages things were being done which made downcast women bestir themselves and look less slatternly.Leaks mended here, windows there, the hopeless copper in the tiny washhouse replaced by a new one, chimneys cured of the habit of smoking, a clean, flowered paper put on a wall, a coat of whitewash--they were small matters, but produced great effect.
Betty had begun to drop into the cottages, and make the acquaintance of their owners.Her first visits, she observed, created great consternation.Women looked frightened or sullen, children stared and refused to speak, clinging to skirts and aprons.She found the atmosphere clear after her second visit.The women began to talk, and the children collected in groups and listened with cheerful grins.She could pick up little Jane's kitten, or give a pat to small Thomas' mongrel dog, in a manner which threw down barriers.
"Don't put out your pipe," she said to old Grandfather Doby, rising totteringly respectful from his chimney-side chair.
"You have only just lighted it.You mustn't waste a whole pipeful of tobacco because I have come in."The old man, grown childish with age, tittered and shuffled and giggled.Such a joke as the grand young lady was having with him.She saw he had only just lighted his pipe.
The gentry joked a bit sometimes.But he was afraid of his grandson's wife, who was frowning and shaking her head.
Betty went to him, and put her hand on his arm.
"Sit down," she said, "and I will sit by you." And she sat down and showed him that she had brought a package of tobacco with her, and actually a wonder of a red and yellow jar to hold it, at the sight of which unheard-of joys his rapture was so great that his trembling hands could scarcely clasp his treasures.
"Tee-hee! Tee-hee-ee! Deary me! Thankee--thankee, my lady," he tittered, and he gazed and blinked at her beauty through heavenly tears.
"Nearly a hundred years old, and he has lived on sixteen shillings a week all his life, and earned it by working every hour between sunrise and sunset," Betty said to her sister, when she went home."A man has one life, and his has passed like that.It is done now, and all the years and work have left nothing in his old hands but his pipe.That's all.Ishould not like to put it out for him.Who am I that Ican buy him a new one, and keep it filled for him until the end? How did it happen? No," suddenly, "I must not lose time in asking myself that.I must get the new pipe."She did it--a pipe of great magnificence--such as drew to the Doby cottage as many callers as the village could provide, each coming with fevered interest, to look at it--to be allowed to hold and examine it for a few moments, guessing at its probable enormous cost, and returning it reverently, to gaze at Doby with respect--the increase of which can be imagined when it was known that he was not only possessor of the pipe, but of an assurance that he would be supplied with as much tobacco as he could use, to the end of his days.From the time of the advent of the pipe, Grandfather Doby became a man of mark, and his life in the chimney corner a changed thing.A man who owns splendours and unlimited, excellent shag may like friends to drop in and crack jokes--and even smoke a pipe with him--a common pipe, which, however, is not amiss when excellent shag comes free.
