Of course it was at this time known to the lady that her husband had thrown away Goarly’s business and that it had been transferred to Bearside.  It was also surmised by her, as it was by the town in general, that Goarly’s business would come to considerable dimensions;—­just the sort of case as would have been sure to bring popularity if carried through, as Nickem, the senior clerk, would have carried it.  And as soon as Scrobby’s name was heard by Mrs. Masters, there was no end to the money in the lady’s imagination to which this very case might not have amounted.

“The club had nothing to do with it, my dear.”

“What time did you come home on Saturday night;—­or Sunday morning I mean?  Do you mean to tell me you didn’t settle it there?”

“There was no nastiness, and no beastliness, and no drunkenness about it.  I told you before I went that I wouldn’t take it”

“No;—­you didn’t.  How on earth are you to go on if you chuck the children’s bread out of their mouths in that way?”

“You won’t believe me.  Do you ask Twentyman what sort of a man Goarly is.”  The attorney knew that Larry was in great favour with his wife as being the favoured suitor for Mary’s hand, and had thought that this argument would be very strong.

“I don’t want Mr. Twentyman to teach me what is proper for my family,—­nor yet to teach you your business.  Mr. Twentyman has his own way of living.  He brought home Kate the other day with hardly a rag of her sister’s habit left.  She don’t go out hunting any more.”

“Very well, my dear.”

“Indeed for the matter of that I don’t see how any of them are to do anything.  What’ll Lord Rufford do for you?”

“I don’t want Lord Rufford to do anything for me.”  The attorney was beginning to have his spirit stirred within him.

“You don’t want anybody to do anything, and yet you will do nothing yourself, just because a set of drinking fellows in a tap-room, which you call a club—­”

“It isn’t a tap-room.”

“It’s worse, because nobody can see what you’re doing.  I know how it was.  You hadn’t the pluck to hold to your own when Runciman told you not” There was a spice of truth in this which made it all the more bitter.  “Runciman knows on which side his bread is buttered.  He can make his money out of these swearing-tearing fellows.  He can send in his bills, and get them paid too.  And it’s all very well for Larry Twentyman to be hobbing and nobbing with the likes of them Botseys.  But for a father of a family like you to be put off his business by what Mr. Runciman says is a shame.”

“I shall manage my business as I think fit,” said the attorney.