Chapter 2Reuben and Rose were married in the January of '70. It was the earliest date compatible with the stocking of her wardrobe, a business which immediately absorbed her to the exclusion of everything else.
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"He'll easily git another pl?aceI'll find him one myself. And, motherthere's something more. Now you haven't got f?ather to work fur, you'll find the time unaccountable long. Wot if you let Becky go, and did the cooking and that yourself?"The next year came the great unionist collapse. The Government which had bumped perilously through the South African war, went on the rocks of an indignant peacewrecked by Tariff Reform with the complication of Chinese Labour and the Education Bill. Once more Reuben took prominent part in a general election. The circumstances were alteredno one threw dead cats at him at meetings, though the common labouring men had a way of asking questions which they had not had in '65.All through the sermon he sat with his eyes fixed on Realf's profile. There was his rival, the man with whom he would have to reckon most during the difficult future, with whom he was fighting for Boarzell. He looked marvellously young and comely as he sat there in the fretted light, and suddenly for the first time Reuben realised that he was not as young as he had been. He was forty-sixhe was getting old.As she rode o'er the downs.