Introduction and context

Mr Middlecoat is younger than Mrs Bosenna and has his farm adjoining Rilla. Uniting the two freeholds is in the interests of both, but Mrs Bosenna wishes to command the arrangement. Her relationship with the two captains is a ploy to put her in a stronger position with Middlecoat, one she exploits at the end of Chapter XII. In Chapter XXI, Hocken observed Middlecoat leaving Rilla ‘angry as a bull’, maybe having been turned down by Mrs Bosenna, although the lady claims the conversation to have been about the auction propposed for January 4, 1897. At the auction Middlecoat endeavours to impress Mrs Bosenna. Yet they appear in collusion. By the time of the Jubilee Day they are united.