d just the same."

"There, you are mistaken. He would be the better, and so should I, a
great deal better, for a little genuine conversation."

"If it's conversation as ma'es his behind drop--" said Tom Kirk. "An'
puts th' bile in his face--" said Brewitt. There was a general laugh.

"I can see it's no use talking about it any further," said the landlady,
lifting her head dangerously.

"But look here, Mrs. Houseley, do you really think it makes much
difference to a man, whether he can hold a serious conversation or not?"
asked the doctor.

"I do indeed, all the difference in the world--To me, there is no
greater difference, than between an educated man and an uneducated man."

"And where does it come in?" asked Kirk.

"But wait a bit, now," said Aaron Sisson. "You take an educated
man--take Pender. What's his education for? What does he scheme
for?--What does he contrive for? What does he talk for?--"

"For all the purposes of his life," replied the landlady.

"Ay, an' what's the purpose of his life?" insisted Aaron Sisson.

"The purpose of his life," repeated the landlady, at a loss. "I should
think he knows that best himself."

"No better than I know it--and you know it," said Aaron.

"Well," said the landlady, "if you know, then speak out. What is it?"

"To make more money for the firm--and so make his own chance of a rise
better."

The landlady was baffled for some moments. Then she said:

"Yes, and suppose that he does. Is there any harm in it? Isn't it his
duty to do what he can for himself? Don't you try to earn all you can?"

"Ay," said Aaron. "But there's soon a limit to what I can earn.--It's
like this. When you work it out, everything comes to money. Reckon it as
you like, it's money on both sides. It's money we live for, and money is
what our lives is worth--nothing else. Money we live for, and money we
are when we're dead: that or nothing. An' it's money as is between the
masters and us. There's a few educated ones got hold of one end of the
rope, and all the lot of us hanging on to th' other end, an' we s'll go
on pulling our guts out, time in, time out--"

"But they've got th' long end o' th' rope, th' masters has," said
Brewitt.

"For as long as one holds, the other will pull," concluded Aaron Sisson
philosophically.

"An' I'm almighty sure o' that," said Kirk. There was a little pause.

"Yes, that's all there is in the minds of you men," said the landlady.
"But what can be done w