THE UNDYING THING
the whole thing collapsed, what then?
'Ay,' said John Marsh. He rose from his chair, and pointed in the direction of the Hall with his thumb. 'What then?'
He walked across to the fire, looked at it meditatively for a moment, and then spat in it.
'A trewly wun'ful owd mon,' said Farmer Wynthwaite as he watched him.
III
In the smoking-room at Mansteth Hall sat Sir Edric with his friend and intended brother-in-law, Dr. Andrew Guerdon. Both men were on the verge of middle-age; there was hardly a year's difference between them. Yet Guerdon looked much the older man; that was, perhaps, because he wore a short, black beard, while Sir Edric was
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