you?" he enquired.

Mr. Hearty had regarded his brother-in-law with what he conceived to
be reproving dignity.

"I do not understand, Joseph," he remarked in hollow, woolly tones.

"Well, there's ole Mac, always a-givin' the glad-eye to Millikins,"
explained Bindle.

"If you wish to speak of our minister, Joseph, you must do so
respectfully, and I cannot listen to such vulgar suggestions."

"Oh, come orf of it, 'Earty! you're only a greengrocer, an'
greengrocers don't talk like that 'ere, whatever they may do in
'eaven. If you're a-goin' to 'ave any 'anky-panky with Millikins over
that sandy-'aired son of a tub-thumper, then you're up against the
biggest thing in your life, an' don't you forget it."

Bindle was angry.

"Of late, Joseph," Mr. Hearty replied, "you have shown too much desire
to interfere in my private affairs, and I cannot permit it."

"Oh! you can't, can't you?" said Bindle. "Don't you forget, ole sport,
that if it 'adn't a-been for me 'oldin' my tongue, you wouldn't 'ave
'ad no bloomin' affairs for me to mix up in."

Mr. Hearty paled and fumbled with the right lapel of his coat.

"Any'ow," said Bindle, "Millikins is goin' to marry Charlie Dixon, an'
if you're goin' to try any of your dirty tricks over Ole
Skin-and-Oatmeal, then you're goin' to be up against J.B. There are
times," muttered Bindle, as he walked away from the Heartys' house,
"when 'Earty gets my goat"; and he started whistling shrilly to cheer
himself up.

Bindle was still troubled in his mind about Mr. Hearty's scheme for
Millie's future and, one Sunday evening, he determined to forgo the
Night Club, in order to call upon the Heartys with the object of
conveying to Mr. MacFie in the course of conversation that Millie was
irrevocably pledged to Charlie Dixon.

Mr. MacFie had formed the habit of supping with the Heartys after
evening service, and frequently Mrs. Bindle was of the party.

Bindle's Sunday evening engagements at the Night Club had been a cause
of great relief to Mrs. Bindle. For some time previously Mr. Hearty's
invitations to the Bindles to take supper on Sunday evenings had been
growing less and less frequent. It did not require a very great effort
of the imagination to discover the cause. Bindle's racy speech and
unconventional views upon religion were to Mr. Hearty anathema, and
whilst they amused Mrs. Hearty, who, having trouble with her breath,
did not seem to consider that religion was meant for her, the