suppose he he can't very well help himself."

"Is papa going to preside over the petition?" asked Augusta.

"Yes, my dear."

"I hope it won't cost him anything," said Martha. "People say that
those petitions do cost a great deal of money."

"It's a very anxious time for me, girls; of course, you must all of
you see that. I'm sure when we had our party I didn't think things
were going to be as anxious as this, or I wouldn't have had a penny
spent in such a way as that. If your papa could bring himself to give
up the brewery, everything would be well."

"I do so wish he would," said Cherry, "and let us all go and live at
Torquay. I do so hate this nasty dirty old place."

"I shall never live in a house I like so well," said Martha.

"The house is well enough, my dears, and so is the brewery, but it
can't be expected that your father should go on working for ever as
he does at present. It's too much for his strength;--a great deal too
much. I can see it, though I don't suppose any one else can. No one
knows, only me, what your father has gone through in that brewery."

"But why doesn't he take Mr. Rowan's offer?" said Cherry.

"Everybody seems to say now that Rowan is ever so rich," said
Augusta.

"I suppose papa doesn't like the feeling of being turned out," said
Martha.

"He wouldn't be turned out, my dear; not the least in the world,"
said Mrs. Tappitt. "I don't choose to interfere much myself because,
perhaps, I don't understand it; but certainly I should like your papa
to retire. I have told him so; but gentlemen sometimes don't like to
be told of things."

Mrs. Tappitt could be very severe to her husband, could say to him
terrible words if her spirit were put up, as she herself was wont
to say. But she understood that it did not become her to speak ill
of their father before her girls. Nor would she willingly have been
heard by the servants to scold their master. And though she said
terrible things she said them with a conviction that they would not
have any terrible effect. Tappitt would only take them for what
they were worth, and would measure them by the standard which his
old experience had taught him to adopt. When a man has been long
consuming red pepper, it takes much red pepper to stimulate his
palate. Had Mrs. Tappitt merely advised her husband, in proper
conjugal phraseology, to relinquish his trade and to retire to
Torquay, her advice, she knew, would have had no weight. She was
eager on