Obstinacy 
was certainly embittered. For he complained, 
‘“‘T ’ve got three months’ work for a man hedging 
and ditching, but I can’t find a man capable of 
doing it, and it’ll have to go undone.” 
Yet the “ place ’’ he wanted the working classes 
taught was industrial and economic, not social. 
If they would do their work at a wage he thought 
its market value, he by no means wished for 
servility from man or woman. One day, as we 
were walking along together, a smart housemaid 
came from a villa and tripped along the pavement 
in front of us. Her cap and apron looked most 
becoming, but Mr. Smith viewed them with dis- 
favour. ‘‘ Don’t that look to you like tyranny?” 
he said, as if rhyming the word to “ irony,’’ and 
leaving no doubt of his dislike of the class 
distin@tion that resulted in uniforms for servants. 
Perhaps villa folk anyhow were objectionable 
to him in all their ways. Their houses spoiled 
the country he cared for; their railways had 
demoralised the working folk; their new-fangled 
councils were a nuisance; they themselves, with 
all their airs, knew nothing of the country. 
Obstruction to them was a man’s plain duty. 
And therefore Mr. Smith was pleased to approve 
highly when he heard from me how a local 
footpath which sundry villa-folk wanted to include 
in their own gardens was saved to the public 
after all. 
61 
