Often it is exaggerated cottage talk.
The whole neighbourhood is wrought up to a fever heat of excited
sympathy. And villagers like the drama of things."
Mrs. Brent looked at her admiringly, it being her fixed habit to admire
Miss Vanderpoel, and all such as Providence had set above her.
"Oh, how wise you are, Miss Vanderpoel!" she exclaimed, even devoutly.
"It is so nice of you to be calm and logical when everybody else is so
upset. You are quite right about villagers enjoying the dramatic side of
troubles. They always do. And perhaps things are not so bad as they say.
I ought not to have let myself believe the worst. But I quite broke down
under the ringers--I was so touched."
"The ringers?" faltered Lady Anstruthers
"The leader came to the vicar to tell him they wanted permission to
toll--if they heard tolling at Dunstan. Weaver's family lives within
hearing of Dunstan church bells, and one of his boys is to run across
the fields and bring the news to Stornham. And it was most touching,
Miss Vanderpoel. They feel, in their rustic way, that Lord Mount Dunstan
has not been treated fairly in the past. And now he seems to them a hero
and a martyr--or like a great soldier who has died fighting.
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