MR. SMEETH IS WORRIED 475

attention, realising at once that this affair transcended
<tny quarrel.

"You did right. Dad" she told him, when he had
finished.

"I hope you realise/' he added, not without bitterness,
"that this means the boy may be out of a job for some
time, and that means both of them earning nothing. It's
all right, of course, but still—well have to be careful/'

"George'll soon get something. He always does/' she
said confidently. "I shouldn't wonder if he hasn't got a
better job in his eye now. You were right to do what
you did, but you leave him alone now and don't worry-
Hell find something."

This seemed a good opportunity to tell what had
happened during the earlier part of this eventful day,
with special reference to'the disturbing rumour about
Mr. Golspie. But she wouldn't listen. She turned her-
self again into a woman who had quarrelled with him,
merely listened to a few words with a distant politeness,
excused herself and then gathered up the tea things in a
very grand, dignified manner, rather like a duchess visit-
ing a poor cottager. Mr. Smeeth was left to smoke his
pipe, alone, a solitary little figure in a huge, dark, mys-
terious world of cracking walls and slithering founda-
tions, with echoes and rumours of catastrophe in every
wind.

ON Tuesday morning, Mr Golspie and Mr. Dersingham
spent more than an hour talking together in the private