‘An’ what call has she to be there?  Who gave her leave to go there?’

There was another exchange of looks between Sidney and Mrs. Hewett; then the latter with hesitation and timidity told of Mrs. Tubbs’s visit to her that evening, and of the proposals the woman had made.

‘I won’t hear of it:’  cried John.  ’I won’t have my girl go for a barmaid, so there’s an end of it.  I tell you she shan’t go!’

‘I can understand you, Mr. Hewett,’ said Sidney, in a tone of argument softened by deference; ’but don’t you think you’d better make a few inquiries, at all events?  You see, it isn’t exactly a barmaid’s place.  I mean to say, Mrs. Tubbs doesn’t keep a public-house where people stand about drinking all day.  It is only a luncheon-bar, and respectable enough.’

John turned and regarded him with astonishment.

’Why, I thought you was as much set against it as me?  What’s made you come round like this?  I s’pose you’ve got tired of her, an’ that’s made you so you don’t care.’

The young man’s eyes flashed angrily, but before he could make a rejoinder Mrs. Hewett interposed.

‘For shame o’ yourself, John If you can’t talk better sense than that, don’t talk at all.  He don’t mean it, Sidney.  He’s half drove off his head with trouble.’

‘If he does think it,’ said Kirkwood, speaking sternly but with self-command, ’let him say what he likes.  He can’t say worse than I should deserve.’

There was an instant of silence.  Hewett’s head hung with more than the usual doggedness.  Then he addressed Sidney, sullenly, but in a tone which admitted his error.

’What have you got to say?  Never mind me.  I’m only the girl’s father, an’ there’s not much heed paid to fathers nowadays.  What have you got to say about Clara?  If you’ve changed your mind about her goin’ there, just tell me why.’

Sidney could not bring himself to speak at once, but an appealing look from Mrs. Hewett decided him.

‘Look here, Mr. Hewett,’ he began, with blunt earnestness.  If any harm came to Clara I should feel it every bit as much as you, and that you ought to know by this time.  All the same, what I’ve got to say is this:  Let her go to Mrs. Tubbs for a month’s trial.  If you persist in refusing her, mark my words, you’ll be sorry.  I’ve thought it all over, and I know what I’m talking about.  The girl can’t put up with the work. room any longer.  It’s ruining her health, for one thing, anybody can see that, and it’s making her so discontented, she’ll soon get reckless.  I understand your feeling well enough, but I understand her as well; at all events, I believe I do.  She wants a change; she’s getting tired of her very life.’

‘Very well,’ cried the father in shrill irritation, ’why doesn’t she take the change that’s offered to her?  She’s no need to go neither to workroom nor to bar.  There’s a good home waiting for her, isn’t there?  What’s come to the girl?  She used to go on as if she liked you well enough.’