The sight of Mary Telfer's pleasant and smiling face on the evening in question was a pleasant relief after the worries and annoyances of the day. Mary was brimful of vivacity and good-humour, and Ralph quickly caught the contagion of her cheerful temper.
She knew all the gossip of the neighbourhood, and retailed it with great verve and humour. Ralph laughed at some of the incidents she narrated until the tears ran down his face.
Then suddenly her mood changed, and she wanted to know if Ralph was going to fight the Brick, Tile, and Clay Company.
"What would you do if you were in my place?" Ralph questioned, with a touch of banter in his voice.
"Oh, that is a question I should never ask myself."
"Then you don't believe in looking far ahead?"
"What's the use? If you look far enough you'll see a tombstone, and that's not cheerful."
"Then you'd fight without considering how the battle might end?"
"Why not? If you are fighting for principle and right, you have to risk the cost and the consequences."
"But to go to war without counting the cost is not usually considered good statesmanship."
"Oh, isn't it? Well, you see, I'm not a statesman--I'm only a woman. But if I were a man I wouldn't let a set of bullies triumph over me."
"But how could you help it if they were stronger than you?"
"At any rate, I'd let them prove they were stronger before I gave in."
"Then you don't believe that discretion is the better part of valour?"
"No, I don't. Not only isn't it the better part of valour, it isn't any part of valour. Besides, we are commanded to resist the devil."
"Then you think the Brick, Tile, and Clay Company is the devil?"
"I think it is doing the devil's work, and such meanness and wickedness ought to be exposed and resisted. What's the world coming to if gentlemen go back on their own solemn promises?"
"It's very sad, no doubt," Ralph said, with a smile. "But, you see, they are a hundred to one, and, however much right I may have on my side, in the long-run I shall have to go under."
"But if you have the law on your side you are bound to win."
"Did you ever know any law," he said, "that was not in the interests of the rich and powerful?"
"I never gave the matter a thought," she answered.