but that each one would receive a
month's wages and permission to inhabit their present abodes for yet a
fortnight. After that they had no longer right of tenancy. He added that if any
man considered himself specially aggrieved by this arrangement, he was prepared
to hear and judge the individual case.
    There was a murmur of discontent through the room, but no one took upon
himself to rise and become spokesman of the community. Disregarding the
manifestation, Hubert described in a few words how and when this final business
would be transacted; then he left the hall by the door which led from the
platform.
    Then followed a busy week. Claims of all kinds were addressed to him, some
reasonable, most of them not to be entertained. Mr. Yottle was constantly at the
Manor; there he and Hubert held a kind of court. Hubert was not well fitted for
business of this nature; he easily became impatient, and, in spite of humane
intentions, often suffered from a tumult of his blood, when opposed by some
dogged mechanic.
    »I can't help it!« he exclaimed to Mr. Wyvern one night, after a day of
peculiar annoyance. »We are all men, it is true; but for the brotherhood - feel
it who can! I am illiberal, if you like, but in the presence of those fellows I
feel that I am facing enemies. It seems to me that I have nothing in common with
them but the animal functions. Absurd? Yes, of course, it is absurd; but I speak
of how intercourse with them affects me. They are our enemies, yours as well as
mine; they are the enemies of every man who speaks the pure English tongue and
does not earn a living with his hands. When they face me I understand what
revolution means; some of them look at me as they would if they had muskets in
their hands.«
    »You are not conciliating,« remarked the vicar.
    »I am not, and cannot be. They stir the worst feelings in me; I grow
arrogant, autocratic. As long as I have no private dealings with them I can
consider their hardships and judge their characters dispassionately; but I must
not come to close quarters.«
    »You have special causes of prejudice.«
    »True. If I were a philosopher I should overcome all that. However, my
prejudice is good in one way; it enables me thoroughly to understand the
detestation with which they regard me and the like of me. If I had been born one
of them I should be the