She avoided his eye.
'The wife's sister again!' he thought.

'So that fellow's going to be an ass, too?
Hopeless, stubborn lot!' And his mind passed on to his scheme for draining the bottom fields at Cantley Bromage.

This village trouble was too small to occupy for long the mind of one who had so many duties....
Old Gaunt remained at the gate watching till the tall figure passed out of sight, then limped slowly down the path and entered his son's cottage.

Tom Gaunt, not long in from work, was sitting in his shirtsleeves, reading the paper--a short, thick-set man with small eyes, round, ruddy cheeks, and humorous lips indifferently concealed by a ragged moustache.

Even in repose there was about him something talkative and disputatious.