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"And for another year we have to sit under a man like that!" said Mrs Polsue to Miss Oliver on their way homeward. Nicky-Nan had one thing in his favour. He came of an old Polpier stock. It had decayed, to be sure, and woefully come down in the world: but the town, though its tongue may wag, has ever a soft heart towards its own.

The very poor live always on the edge of to-morrow; and for that reason the night's sleep, which parts them from it, seems a long time. After all, what could his enemies do to him? If he sat passive, the onus would rest on them. If Policeman Rat-it-all flung him into the street, why then in the street he would sit, to the scandal of Polpier.

Curiously enough and strangely, unless you know Polpier and West-country people it was the likely-looking young men who hung back and showed least interest that afternoon.

Nor was this tone affected to cover a right-about-face; it simply meant that a habit of speech could not quite so quickly as a habit of thought adapt itself to retreat. Of a sudden, and almost before it could own to this nascent interest, Polpier found itself flattered and exalted to military importance.

For example, when a pestilence such as typhoid fever broke out in Polpier five or six hundred years ago, your forefathers attributed it to the wrath of God visiting them for their sins: and to be sure it is good that men, under calamity, should reflect on their sins, but only because it is good for them to reflect on their sins at all times and under any circumstance.

A fierce gust came howling up the little river between its leaning houses and broke in rain upon the bottle-glass quarrels of the window. Nicky-Nan started, as though it were a hand arresting him. The rain the last, for many weeks, to visit Polpier cleared up soon after midday. The weather and the set of the wind always come first in a Polpier man's interest.

Mr Rounsell stood up and pointed out the positions of Liege and Polpier on the wall-map, and their relative distances from London. A moment later the Vicar frowned again as Mr Boult launched into a violent and as it turned out, a lengthy invective against the German Emperor; with the foulness of whose character and designs he had, it seemed, been intimately acquainted for a number of years.

Sir, As an inhabitant of Polpier, born in the town and anxious for its good name, besides being a ratepayer and one that pays taxes to His Majesty, I was naterally concerned to-day at your not taking your place along with the other men that went off to fight for their country.

A high tide filled the inner pool of the harbour, and on its smooth surface several gulls floated, paddling lazily if at all. These birds know Sunday from week-days as well as any Christian folk: which is nothing very wonderful, for the Polpier boats have lain at home all the night and there is no fish-offal drifting about.

Intolerable exposure! He must hide it. . . . He must count it, and then having staved off Pamphlett hide it tomorrow with all speed and cunning. When would the dawn come? The sun, in the longitude of Polpier, was actually due to rise a few minutes before five o'clock.