Three
“Money!” said Lynn.
Rowley Cloade nodded. He was a big square young man with a brick-red skin, thoughtful blueeyes and very fair hair. He had a slowness that seemed more purposeful than ingrained. He useddeliberation as others use quickness of repartee¹.
“Yes,” he said, “everything seems to boil down to money these days.”
“But I thought farmers had done so well during the war?”
“Oh, yes—but that doesn’t do you any permanent good. In a year we’ll be back where we were—with wages up, workers unwilling², everybody dissatisfied and nobody knowing where they are.
Unless, of course, you can farm in a really big way. Old Gordon knew. That was where he waspreparing to come in.”
“And now—” Lynn asked.
Rowley grinned.
“And now Mrs. Gordon goes to London and spends a couple of thousand on a nice mink³ coat.”
“It’s—it’s wicked!”
“Oh, no—” He paused and said: “I’d rather like to give you a mink coat, Lynn—”
“What’s she like, Rowley?” She wanted to get a contemporary judgment⁴.
“You’ll see her tonight. At Uncle Lionel’s and Aunt Kathie’s party.”
“Yes, I know. But I want you to tell me. Mums says she’s half-witted?”
Rowley considered.
“Well—I shouldn’t say intellect was her strong point. But I think really she only seems half-witted because she’s being so frightfully careful.”
“Careful? Careful about what?”
“Oh, just careful. Mainly, I imagine, about her accent—she’s got quite a brogue, you know, orelse about the right fork, and any literary allusions⁵ that might be flying around.”
“Then she really is—quite—well, uneducated?”
Rowley grinned.
“Oh, she’s not a lady, if that’s what you mean. She’s got lovely eyes, and a very goodcomplexion—and I suppose old Gordon fell for that, with her extraordinary air of being quiteunsophisticated. I don’t think it’s put on—though of course you never know. She just standsaround looking dumb and letting David run her.”

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