want?”

p. 33

“Ah, what, indeed?” sighed Mr. Clark.

“But is she content?” asked Mr. Poskett, sadly. “Oh, dear, no! She knows that all flesh is grass, and yet she talks about wanting amusements and recreation! And her nearly twenty! And now and then she gets quite out of control, and indulges in all manner of worldly vanities. Only last week she went to a whist-drive! When she come back, I wrestled with the evil spirit within ’er for a full hour, trying to get ’er to say she repented.”

“And did she?” queried Mr. Clark.

“She did not, alas! She was that ’ardened that she only said the enjoyment was worth a bit of suffering for afterwards! And now she’s gone and got ’erself engaged!”

“’Oo to?” asked Mr. Clark.

“That’s just it,” complained Mr. Poskett. “That’s what we wants to know! We don’t know ’oo ’e is, and she won’t tell us; and she’s that deceitful we can’t find out! I spent ’alf an hour, only yesterday, questioning and ex’orting ’er, and she had not even the grace to cry! If it wasn’t for all the money we’ve spent in bringing ’er up, and for ’er being so useful in the ’ome, I’d ’ave nothing more to do with ’er! I believe she would like things to come to such a sorry pass, too!”

“And I’d not blame ’er—” began Mr. Clark, p. 34absently. “I mean,” he began again, more carefully, “and I shouldn’t blame you, neither.”

p. 34

“I must do my duty,” said Mr. Poskett, unctuously. “’Er place is with me and ’er aunt, and I must keep ’er there!”

“And you ain’t got the least idea ’oo the young fellow is?” asked Mr. Clark.

“Not the least! She won’t bring ’im to the ’ome. She knows too much for that, because I’d soon send ’im about ’is business, ’ooever ’e is! She won’t even tell us ’is name! All she says is that he don’t hold with the same views as us about anything, and that there’d only be trouble if we met. And so there would! And she says she prefers things to go on as they are for a little longer, till they’re quite sure they really wants to marry each other. She says ’is very way of earning a living would ’orrify me, so don’t that just show you? Can you wonder I’m ’eart-broken?”

“If I was you,” said Mr. Clark, resolutely, “I wouldn’t rest till I’d found out 

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