beast. I wanted to fight, I tell you--to fight till the life was kicked
an' throttled out of me!'

'John, don't, don't go on in that way,' cried his wife, sobbing
miserably. 'Don't let him go on like that, Sidney.'

Hewett jumped up and walked about.

'What's the time?' he asked the next moment. And when Sidney told him
that it was half-past nine, he exclaimed, 'Then why hasn't Clara come
'ome? What's gone with her?'

'Perhaps she's at Mrs. Tubbs's,' replied his wife, in a low voice,
looking at Kirkwood.

'An' what call has she to be there? Who gave her leave to go there?'

There was another exchange of looks between Sidney and Mrs. Hewett;
then the latter with hesitation and timidity told of Mrs. Tubbs's visit
to her that evening, and of the proposals the woman had made.

'I won't hear of it:' cried John. 'I won't have my girl go for a
barmaid, so there's an end of it. I tell you she shan't go!'

'I can understand you, Mr. Hewett,' said Sidney, in a tone of argument
softened by deference; 'but don't you think you'd better make a few
inquiries, at all events? You see, it isn't exactly a barmaid's place.
I mean to say, Mrs. Tubbs doesn't keep a public-house where people
stand about drinking all day. It is only a luncheon-bar, and
respectable enough.'

John turned and regarded him with astonishment.

'Why, I thought you was as much set against it as me? What's made you
come round like this? I s'pose you've got tired of her, an' that's made
you so you don't care.'

The young man's eyes flashed angrily, but before he could make a
rejoinder Mrs. Hewett interposed.

'For shame o' yourself, John If you can't talk better sense than that,
don't talk at all. He don't mean it, Sidney. He's half drove off his
head with trouble.'

'If he does think it,' said Kirkwood, speaking sternly but with
self-command, 'let him say what he likes. He can't say worse than I
should deserve.'

There was an instant of silence. Hewett's head hung with more than the
usual doggedness. Then he addressed Sidney, sullenly, but in a tone
which admitted his error.

'What have you got to say? Never mind me. I'm only the girl's father,
an' there's not much heed paid to fathers nowadays. What have you got
to say about Clara? If you've changed your mind about her goin' there,
just tell me why.'

Sidney could not bring himself to speak at once, but an appealing look
from Mrs. Hewett decided him.

'Look here, Mr. Hewett,' he began, with bl