That cleared the air a little. Then she wrote to the paper:
This helped a little further.
The withdrawal of advertisements was a more ticklish business, but she was not one to shrink. One of the big grocers in Stubbington High sued to advertise in the Gazette. His daughter had sung in a duet about a cat and a mouse, which Frampton had judged to be the worst song of the evening. Laetitia put on her fur coat and had herself driven to the grocer’s.
There had been a time, not long past, when a word from Lady Bynd would have made a Stubbington tradesman consider his policy; the time had passed, but she did not yet admit the fact. The grocer had not seen the letter; he read it, at her bidding, and expressed his indignation.
“You can show your indignation,” she said, “by withdrawing your advertisements from a paper which prints insults to your daughter.”
The grocer had lived a long life in a small country town; he was pliant as a reed while the gale blew. He temporised, by saying, that a town in the Far West an editor might be shot for printing a letter of that sort. He went on to say that he wondered at their daring to print it, and then suggested “might not the Law of Libel be invoked?” Many of those who took part in the concert were quite poor people, unable to fee lawyers, “but the Law, my lady, the Law will set them right.”
This struck Laetitia as a possible solution. She had not thought of the Law; what she longed for was a party of young men with cudgels catching Mansell in a dark lane. The time had been when a Bynd might have arranged that; but the times were now out of joint.
“I shall see my own lawyer, you may depend upon it, my lady,” the grocer said. “Fair criticism is one thing; but this is going too far.”
This was something to the good; she felt that she had done one good deed; although, later, she learned that the grocer did nothing. She moved on to the ironmonger.
The ironmonger’s daughter had danced at the concert. She felt that she had a good deal of power over an ironmonger. The Bynd Estate was big, and needed a good deal of iron-work, and many farm implements every year. The Bynd account was well worth having. If this man would not see reason, he might find his account closed. However, as it chanced, the ironmonger was away, and could not be back for two days; her schemes for the ironmonger to withdraw his advertisements would have to wait. There remained the corn and forage merchants; she would see them.