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He glanced towards the row of girls.

‘She ought to ha’ told him just before they went to church, when he could hardly have backed out,’ exclaimed Marian.

‘Yes, she ought,’ agreed Izz.

‘She must have seen what he was after, and should ha’ refused him,’ cried Retty spasmodically.

‘And what do you say, my dear?’ asked the dairyman of Tess.

‘I think she ought—to have told him the true state of things—or else refused him—I don’t know,’ replied Tess, the bread and butter choking her.

‘Be cust if I’d have done either o’t,’ said Beck Nibbs, a married helper from one of the cottages. ‘All’s fair in love and war. I’d ha’ married on just as she did, and if he’d said two words to me about not telling him beforehand anything whatsomdever about my first chap that I hadn’t chose to tell, I’d ha’ knocked him down wi’ the rolling-pin—a scram little feller like he! Any woman could do it.’

The laughter which followed this sally was supplemented only by a sorry smile, for form’s