Fire in the Thatch by Edith Caroline Rivett

Mr. Holsworthy left the Blue Boar feeling troubled in his mind. Devon born, he was an educated man and on easy terms with his wealthier as well as his humbler neighbours. He thought the world of the Devon farm labourers and he understood them, and he knew the way in which Macdonald’s appearance would cause them to gossip and surmise amongst themselves. Holsworthy had met both Gressingham and Radcliffe and disliked the pair of them heartily, but he believed that the suspicion in which they were held was due to the fact that they were “foreigners.” A fellow-farmer had said to Holsworthy that day in all sincerity: “Miss Jameson, who’s been helping with billeting, wanted my wife to take in a London family. I don’t see it. Strikes me all Londoners are dirty. Look at the way some of ’em have treated the places they’ve been lent.” Unhappily it was a fact that the habits and behaviour of some of the London evacuees had caused the name “Londoner” to be regarded askance in the countryside. Pondering deeply, Mr. Holsworthy got into his car and drove on to Exeter, where he had legitimate business to transact, and later he looked in at a recently formed Men’s Club. This establishment had been organised by a few landowners and professional men who wanted to have somewhere quiet where they could eat, transact business and read their papers, and the unusual venture was a success. Holsworthy, looking in at the big sitting-room, found half-a-dozen men present, among them Howard Brendon, who was studying a sale list. Holsworthy went and sat beside him, saying:

“I’d be glad of a word with you, Brendon. I’m a bit bothered in my mind about some gossip around the Mallorys.”