To suggest any other place of summer retreat would have been too alarming.  Mr. Hood’s defect of imagination was illustrated in this matter; he had been somehow led, years ago, to pay a visit to Cleethorpes, and since then that one place represented for him the seaside.  Others might be just as accessible and considerably more delightful, but it did not even occur to him to vary.  It would have cost him discomfort to do so, the apprehension of entering upon the unknown.  The present was the third summer which had passed without his quitting home.  Anxiety troubled his countenance as Emily made the proposal.

‘Not this year, I think,’ he said, as if desirous of passing the subject by.

’Father, what possible objection can there be to my bearing the expense of a week at Cleethorpes?  You know how well I can afford it; indeed I should like to go; it is rather unkind of you to refuse.’

This was an old subject of discussion.  Since Emily had lived away from home, not only her father, but her mother just as strenuously, had refused to take from her any of the money that she earned.  It had been her habit at first indirectly to overcome this resistance by means of substantial presents in holiday time; but she found such serious discomfort occasioned by the practice that most reluctantly she had abandoned it.  For the understanding of the Hoods’ attitude in this matter, it must be realised how deeply their view of life was coloured by years of incessant preoccupation with pecuniary difficulties.  The hideous conception of existence which regards each individual as fighting for his own hand, striving for dear life against every other individual, was ingrained in their minds by the inveterate bitterness of their own experience; when Emily had become a woman, and was gone forth to wrest from the adverse world her own subsistence, her right to what she earned was indefeasible, and affection itself protested against her being mulcted for their advantage.  As for the slight additional expense of her presence at home during the holidays, she must not be above paying a visit to her parents; the little inconsistency was amiable enough.  Father and mother both held forth to her in the same tone:  ’You have the battle of life before you; it is a terrible one, and the world is relentless.  Not only is it your right, but your very duty, to spare every penny you can; for, if anything happened to prevent your earning money, you would become a burden upon us—­a burden we would gladly strive to bear, but the thought of which would be very hard for yourself.  If, on the other hand, your mother were left a widow, think how dreadful it would be if you could give her no assistance.  You are wrong in spending one farthing more than your absolute needs require; to say you do it in kindness to us is a mere mistake of yours.’  The logic was not to be encountered; it was as irresistible as the social conditions which gave it birth.  Emily had abandoned discussion on these points; such reasoning