the truth I haven't thought much about it at all."
"Well I think you should," said Miss Allsop severely. "Father's sure
it won't pay--and it will cost I don't know how much. It is bound
to be a dead loss. And your father's getting on. You'll be left
stranded in the world without a penny to bless yourself with. I
think it's an awful outlook for you."
"Do you?" said Alvina.
Here she was, with a bang, planked upon the shelf among the old
maids.
"Oh, I do. Sincerely! I should do all I could to prevent him, if I
were you."
Miss Allsop took her departure. Alvina felt herself jolted in her
mood. An old maid along with Cassie Allsop!--and James Houghton
fooling about with the last bit of money, mortgaging Manchester
House up to the hilt. Alvina sank in a kind of weary mortification,
in which _her_ peculiar obstinacy persisted devilishly and
spitefully. "Oh well, so be it," said her spirit vindictively. "Let
the meagre, mean, despicable fate fulfil itself." Her old anger
against her father arose again.
Arthur Witham, the plumber, came in with James Houghton to examine
the house. Arthur Witham was also one of the Chapel men--as had been
his common, interfering, uneducated father before him. The father
had left each of his sons a fair little sum of money, which Arthur,
the eldest, had already increased ten-fold. He was sly and slow and
uneducated also, and spoke with a broad accent. But he was not
bad-looking, a tight fellow with big blue eyes, who aspired to keep
his "h's" in the right place, and would have been a gentleman if he
could.
Against her usual habit, Alvina joined the plumber and her father in
the scullery. Arthur Witham saluted her with some respect. She liked
his blue eyes and tight figure. He was keen and sly in business,
very watchful, and slow to commit himself. Now he poked and peered
and crept under the sink. Alvina watched him half disappear--she
handed him a candle--and she laughed to herself seeing his tight,
well-shaped hind-quarters protruding from under the sink like the
wrong end of a dog from a kennel. He was keen after money, was
Arthur--and bossy, creeping slyly after his own self-importance and
power. He wanted power--and he would creep quietly after it till he
got it: as much as he was capable of. His "h's" were a barbed-wire
fence and entanglement, preventing his unlimited progress.
He emerged from under the sink, and they went to the kitchen and
afterwards upstairs. Alvina followed them persistently, but a little
aloof, and silent. When the tour of inspection was almost over, she
said innocently:
"Won't it cost a great deal?"
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