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house-party next weekend. Some foreign royalties is coming – a German prince an’ princess. That’s what Jack Belcher told me – he’s acting as bailiff now. Jack told him he couldn’t do it: but his lordship shouts him down. Says his guests’ privacy’s got to be respected, he says. ‘You carry out your orders,’ he shouts.”
    “A temporary measure?” said I.
    Ightham shrugged his shoulders.
    “The gate’s there, sir. I’ve seen it. An’ now it’s there, I can’t see him taking it down.” He laughed abruptly. “A stranger shouldn’t do that.”
    “What d’you know, Mr Ightham?”
    The farmer looked round.
    Then—
    “I’m told, sir, Old Chalk’ll open it Wednesday next.”
     
    We called at Bluecoat the next day, precisely at ten o’clock.
    “His lordship in?” said Berry.
    “He is, sir.”
    “Ask him if he’ll give me ten minutes.”
    “Certainly, sir. Will you please to come this way?”
    We entered a chamber which I had known as a child.
    One minute later the peer strode into the room.
    “Morning, Withyham,” said Berry. “Forgive us for calling so early, but, if we hadn’t come now, we couldn’t have come today.”
    “Is it so urgent, Pleydell?”
    “Yes,” said Berry, “it is. The thing is this. I know your respect for tradition. Of that respect you chose Bluecoat, and of that respect you maintain it, as Bluecoat should be maintained. For that reason, I venture to ask you to reopen Romany Lane. I know—”
    “If I’d had—”
    “Bear with me for a moment.” Lord Withyham bit his lip. “I know it’s a temporary measure, but—”
    “And there you’re wrong,” said Withyham. “Romany Lane is mine.”
    “Of course it’s yours,” said Berry. “But everybody has used it for many years.”
    “And now they think it’s theirs.”
    “They don’t, indeed,” said Berry. “And there is no reason at all why you shouldn’t put up a gate. But you’ve put a chain on the gate – and that is what upsets them. You see, they feel—”
    “They think they’ve a right of way. Is that what you’re trying to say?
    “They do,” said Berry. “And country people are jealous of rights of way.”
    “Well, I don’t think – I know. Prescription doesn’t apply in a case like this.”
    “I don’t agree,” said Berry, “but that’s beside the point. You don’t want to cross your neighbours – I’m sure of that. Yet, you want to close Romany Lane for the next weekend. Now, if you put a card on the gate—”
    “Very clever,” sneered Withyham. “A card requesting their indulgence. And then, when it comes to Court, that card’s produced against me.”
    Berry frowned.
    “I hope,” he said quietly, “I hope it won’t come to Court.”
    “I know. You’re trying to bluff me. You and that snivelling priest—”
    “Really, Withyham, you must not talk like that. John Chisholm’s a better man than you or I. And—”
    “What are you here for, Pleydell? To tell me how to behave?”
    Berry raised his eyebrows.
    “I wish you’d see reason,” he said. “Today the public is ready to perceive the mote of oppression in every great man’s eye. And you are offering them a beam. You really are. Giving them something to get hold of. And that’s – unfortunate, Withyham. Class hatred’s a dreadful thing. It’s been deliberately fostered for some years now – by certain politicians, to gain their ends. But it’s never touched our parish – we’ve always been happy here. And there’s no reason why it should: for there’s nothing for it to breed on. But if you shut Romany Lane—”
    “I asked what you were here for.”
    “We are here,” said Berry quietly, “to ask you to open that gate. I’m told you don’t want the lane used during the next weekend. If you will take off that chain, I will guarantee that nobody uses that lane on Saturday, Sunday and Monday next.”
    “You will, will you? And what about after that?”
    “Your guests will be gone,