as all
quite clear. He understood--I should think he did, by Jove!" George
Cannon laughed shortly. "Every one understood. I got a practice together
in no time. _He_ didn't do it. He wouldn't have got a practice together
in a thousand years. I had the second-best practice in Turnhill, and I
should soon have had the best--if I hadn't been done."

"Yes?" said Hilda. The confidence flattered her.

"Well, Karkeek came into some money,--and he simply walked out of the
office! Simply walked out! Didn't give me time to turn round. I'd always
treated him properly. But he was jealous."

"What a shame!" Hilda's scorn shrivelled up Mr. Karkeek. There was
nothing that she detested so much as a disloyalty.

"Yes. I couldn't stop him, of course. No formal agreement between us.
Couldn't be, in a case like ours! So he had me. He'd taken my wages
quick enough as long as it suited him. Then he comes into money, and
behaves like that. Jealousy! They were all jealous,--always had been. I
was doing too well. So I had the whole gang down on me instantly like a
thousand of bricks. They knew I was helpless, and so they came on.
Special meeting of the committee of the North Staffordshire Law Society,
if you please! Rumours of prosecution--oh yes! I don't know what!... All
because I wouldn't take the trouble to pass their wretched exams....
Why, I could pass their exams on my head, if I hadn't anything better to
do. But I have. At first I thought I'd retire for five years and pass
their exams, and then come back and make 'em sit up. And wouldn't I have
made 'em sit up! But then I said to myself, 'No. It isn't good enough.'"

Hilda frowned. "What isn't?"

"What? The Five Towns isn't good enough! I can find something better
than the law, and I can find something better than the Five Towns!...
And here young Lawton has the impudence to begin to preach to me on
Knype platform, and to tell me I'm wise in going! He's the President of
the local Law Society, you know! No end of a President! And hasn't even
got gumption enough to keep his father's practice together! Stupid ass!
Well, I let him have it, and straight! He's no worse than the rest.
They've got no brains in this district. And they're so narrow--narrow
isn't the word! Thick-headed's the word. Stupid! Mean!... Mean!... What
did it matter to them? I kept to all their rules. There was a real
solicitor on the premises, and there'd soon have been another, if I'd
had time. No concern of theirs