‘There was talk about you and Rodman.’

‘What did they say?’

’Couldn’t hear.  I was in the other room.  But I heard Yottle speaking your name.’

He had, in fact, heard a few words through the keyhole, but not enough to gather the sense of the conversation, which had been carried on in discreet tones.

‘There you are!’ Alice exclaimed, addressing her mother.  ’They’re plotting against us, you see.’

’I don’t think it ‘ud be Dick’s wish to do you harm,’ said Mrs. Mutimer absently.

’Dick ‘ll do whatever she tells him.’

‘Adela, eh?’ observed ’Arry.  ‘She’s a cat.’

‘You mind your own business!’ returned his sister.

’So it is my business.  She looked at me as if I wasn’t good enough to come near her ’igh-and-mightiness.  I’m glad to see her brought down a peg, chance it!’

Alice would not condescend to join her reprobate brother, even in abuse of Adela.  She very shortly took leave of her mother, who went up to the door with her.

‘Are you going to see Dick?’ Mrs. Mutimer said, in the passage.

‘I shan’t see him till he comes to my house,’ replied Alice sharply.

The old woman stood on the doorstep till her daughter was out of sight, then sighed and returned to her kitchen.

Alice returned to her more fashionable quarter by omnibus.  Though Rodman had declined to make any change in their establishment, he practised economy in the matter of his wife’s pin-money.  Gone were the delights of shopping, gone the little lunches in confectioners’ shops to which Alice, who ate sweet things like a child, had been much addicted.  Even the carriage she could seldom make use of, for Rodman had constant need of it—­to save cab-fares, he said.  It was chiefly employed in taking him to and from the City, where he appeared to have much business at present.

On reaching home Alice found a telegram from her husband.

’Shall bring three friends to dinner.  Be ready for us at half-past seven.’

Yet he had assured her that he would dine quietly alone with her at eight o’clock.  Alice, who was weary of the kind of men her husband constantly brought, felt it as a bitter disappointment.  Besides, it was already after six, and there were no provisions in the house.  But for her life she durst not cause Rodman annoyance by offering a late or insufficient dinner.  She thanked her stars that her return had been even thus early.

The men when they presented themselves were just of the kind she expected—­loud-talking—­their interests divided between horse-racing and the money-market; she was a cipher at her own table, scarcely a remark being addressed to her.  The conversation was meaningless to her; it seemed, indeed, to be made purposely mysterious; terms of the stock-exchange were eked out with nods and winks.  Rodman was in far better spirits than of late, whence Alice gathered that some promising rascality was under consideration.