Of their existence in town I knew no more than may be inferred from analogy.

I played chess with Fyne in the late afternoon, and sometimes came over to the cottage early enough to have tea with the whole family at a big round table.

They sat about it, an unsmiling, sunburnt company of very few words indeed.

Even the children were silent and as if contemptuous of each other and of their elders.

Fyne muttered sometimes deep down in his chest some insignificant remark.