MR. S M E E T H IS WORRIED 441

your head to ask Mitty and his wife and their guzzling
pals up here those two nights round Christmas. It's bad
enough them coming here at all-most men wouldn't
have it for a minute, not if they couldn't stand the sight
of 'em and never stayed in the house when they were
there, like me—but it's fifty times worse when you go
and run yourself into debt to do it, just so they can all
swill it down at my expense. It's not good enough, and
you know it isn't/5

"Oh3 isn't it? Well, next time Christmas comes round,
I'll tell Fred and everybody else to keep away, and we'll
all go into the workhouse, and then you'll be satisfied.
If you wasn't getting too mean to live, you'd have
thought nothing about it. You talk as if I owed Sorley's
about fifty pounds. Three pounds fifteen, that's all it is,
and you make all this bother/'

"Well, it's three pound fifteen more than you can pay,
it seems/' he retorted.

"Who says it is? I haven't even asked you to pay it
yet. Keep your money. I can pay it all right in time.
Sorley's can wait, for all I care/'

"Well, they can't for all I care. I believe in paying
cash down and no debts running on, always have done?
and you know it. And I'll have that to pay, just because
you've decided to open a free pub for Mitty and his fine
little lot. That's what it amounts to/'

"That's right, start again now. You can argue with
yourself for an hour or two, and see how you like it. I'm
going out. And if you want to know, I'll tell you where
I'm going. I'm going/' she added deliberately, "down to
Fred Mitty's."

He was furious, but he knew that he could not prevent
her from going. He looked at her, and he had to twist

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