y to Mr. Wright, not only at the close of work, but in the
morning, between jobs. His workmen began to talk. He suspected them
and slid into foolish, cunning tricks to outwit them, leaving the
shop on false excuses, setting out ostentatiously in the wrong
direction and doubling back on the "Turk's Head" by a side street.
They knew where to find him, however, when a customer dropped in.

"Who sent you here?" he demanded furiously, one day, of the youngest
apprentice, who had come for the second time that week to fetch him
out of the "King's Oak." (He had enlarged his circle of taverns by
this time, and it included one half of Soho.)

"Please you, I wasn't sent here at all," the boy stammered. "I tried
the 'Turk's Head' first and then the 'Three Tuns.'"

"And what should make you suppose I was at either? Look here, young
man, the workshop from Robinson down"--Robinson was the foreman--"is
poking its nose too far into my business. If this goes on, one of
these days Robinson will get his dismissal and you the strap."

"It wasn't Robinson sent me, sir. It was the mistress."

"Eh!" William Wright came to a halt on the pavement and his jaw
dropped.

"Her uncle, Mr. Matthew, has called and wants to see you on
particular business."

The business, as it turned out, was merely to give him quittance of a
loan. The sum first advanced to them by Matthew Wesley had proved
barely sufficient. To furnish the dwelling-rooms in Frith Street he
had lent another 10 pounds and taken a separate bond for it, and
this debt Hetty had discharged out of her household economies,
secretly planning a happy little surprise for her husband; and now in
the hurry of innocent delight she betrayed her sadder secret.

She had as yet no fear of him, though he was afraid of her. But at
sight of him as he entered, all the joy went out of her announcement.

He listened sulkily, took the receipt, and muttered some ungracious
thanks. Old Matthew eyed him queerly, and, catching a whiff of
brandy, pulled out his gold watch. The action may have been
involuntary. The hour was half-past ten in the morning.

"Well, well--I must be going. Excuse me, nephew Wright; with my
experience I ought to have known better than to withdraw a busy man
from his work."

He glanced at Hetty, with a look which as good as asked leave for a
few words with her in private. But Mr. Wright, now thoroughly
suspicious, did not choose to be dismissed in this fashion.