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"It looks," said Rosamund, "as if he didn't want to go."

"But he's very pious. He says his rosary in the fields, and Mr. Hightower once went into his room about something and found him praying on his knees by himself in the dark."

Well, thought Rosamund, for crying out loud. She said: "What time does the post go from Doleham? I've got a letter I want to catch it."

12

The next turn up the lane—and it had had many turnings—brought them suddenly in front of Waters Farm. It was a squat, black house with white-rimmed windows set crookedly in its tar-board front. The roof was a huge sprawl of mingled colors as various mosses and lichens ate the tiles. Around it was packed a jumble of barns and lodges with two headless oasts.

"We haven't been able to do much about the garden," said Lesley as she led the way up a weedy path between some derelict bean rows, "but we hope in time to get that going, as it's expensive to buy vegetables, even though I can get them locally at almost cost price."

"Then do you feed your people too as well as house them and pay them for it?"