as ever they could be. The woman looked at him,
thought what she might be but for him, and scorned and loathed him with
a feeling that almost amounted to insanity. What nights she lay awake,
weeping, and cursing herself and him! His humility and beseeching looks
only made him more despicable and hateful to her.

If Hayes did not hate the mother, however, he hated the boy--hated and
feared him dreadfully. He would have poisoned him if he had had the
courage; but he dared not: he dared not even look at him as he sat
there, the master of the house, in insolent triumph. O God! how the
lad's brutal laughter rung in Hayes's ears; and how the stare of his
fierce bold black eyes pursued him! Of a truth, if Mr. Wood loved
mischief, as he did, honestly and purely for mischief's sake, he had
enough here. There was mean malice, and fierce scorn, and black revenge,
and sinful desire, boiling up in the hearts of these wretched people,
enough to content Mr. Wood's great master himself.

Hayes's business, as we have said, was nominally that of a carpenter;
but since, for the last few years, he had added to it that of a lender
of money, the carpenter's trade had been neglected altogether for one so
much more profitable. Mrs. Hayes had exerted herself, with much
benefit to her husband, in his usurious business. She was a resolute,
clear-sighted, keen woman, that did not love money, but loved to be rich
and push her way in the world. She would have nothing to do with the
trade now, however, and told her husband to manage it himself. She felt
that she was separated from him for ever, and could no more be brought
to consider her interests as connected with his own.

The man was well fitted for the creeping and niggling of his dastardly
trade; and gathered his moneys, and busied himself with his lawyer, and
acted as his own bookkeeper and clerk, not without satisfaction. His
wife's speculations, when they worked in concert, used often to frighten
him. He never sent out his capital without a pang, and only because he
dared not question her superior judgment and will. He began now to lend
no more: he could not let the money out of his sight. His sole pleasure
was to creep up into his room, and count and recount it. When Billings
came into the house, Hayes had taken a room next to that of Wood. It was
a protection to him; for Wood would often rebuke the lad for using Hayes
ill: and both Catherine and Tom treated the old man with deference.