Just at the worst, he heard a knock at the library door.

Before he could say 'Come in,' it was hurriedly opened, and his two married daughters confronted him--Pamela, too, behind them.
'Father!' cried Mrs.Gaddesden, 'you must please let us come and speak to you!' What on earth was wrong with them?
Alice--for whom her father had more contempt than affection--looked merely frightened; but Margaret's eyes were angry, and Pamela's reproachful.

The Squire braced himself to endurance.
'What do you want with me ?' '_Father_!--we never thought you meant it seriously! And now Forest says all the gates are closed, and that the village is up in arms.
The labourers declare that if the County plough is turned back to-morrow, they'll break them down themselves.

And when we're all likely to be starving in six months!' 'You really can't expect working-folk to stand quietly by and see such a thing!' said Margaret in her intensest voice.

'Do, father, let me send Forest at once to tell the gardeners to open all the gates.' The Squire defied her to do any such thing.