plan there was to which she might possibly agree, and even have pleasure in accepting it, but it was not easy to propose.  The house in Wilton Square was still on his hands; upon the departure of Emma and her sister; a certain Mrs. Chattaway, a poor friend of old times, who somehow supported herself and a grandchild, had been put into the house as caretaker, for Richard could not sell all the furniture to which his mother was so attached, and he had waited for her return to reason before ultimately deciding how to act in that matter.  Could he now ask the old woman to return to the Square, and, it might be, live there with Mrs. Chattaway?  In that case both ’Arry and Alice would have to leave London.

On Saturday afternoon he had a long talk with his sister.  To Alice also it had occurred that their mother’s return to the old abode might be desirable.

‘And you may depend upon it, Dick,’ she said, ’she’ll never rest again till she does get back.  I believe you’ve only got to speak of it, and she’ll go at once.’

‘She’ll think it unkind,’ Richard objected.  ’It looks as if we wanted to get her out of the way.  Why on earth does she carry on like this?  As if we hadn’t bother enough!’

’Well, we can’t help what she thinks.  I believe it’ll be for her own good.  She’ll be comfortable with Mrs. Chattaway, and that’s more than she’ll ever be here.  But what about ‘Arry?’

’He’ll have to come to Wanley.  I shall find him work there—­I wish I’d done so months ago.’

There were no longer the objections to ’Arry’s appearance at Wanley that had existed previous to Richard’s marriage; none the less the resolution was courageous, and proved the depth of Mutimer’s anxiety for his brother.  Having got the old woman to Wilton Square, and Alice to the Manor, it would have been easy enough to bid Mr. Henry Mutimer betake himself—­whither his mind directed him.  Richard could not adopt that rough-and-ready way out of his difficulty.  Just as he suffered in the thought that he might be treating his mother unkindly, so he was constrained to undergo annoyances rather than abandon the hope of saving ’Arry from ultimate destruction.

‘Will he live at the Manor?’ Alice asked uneasily.

Richard mused; then a most happy idea struck him.

’I have it!  He shall live with Rodman.  The very thing!  Rodman’s the fellow to look after him.  Yes; that’s what we’ll do.’

‘And I’m to live at the Manor?’

‘Of course.’

‘You think Adela won’t mind?’

‘Mind?  How the deuce can she mind it?’

As a matter of form Adela would of course be consulted, but Richard had no notion of submitting practical arrangements in his own household to his wife’s decision.

‘Now we shall have to see mother,’ he said.  ’How’s that to be managed?’

‘Will you go and speak at her door?’

’That be hanged!  Confound it, has she gone crazy?  Just go up and say I want to see her.’