‘Yes, I believe she has been once,’ said Mr. Piper, and then, anxious to chase the thunder-cloud from his young wife’s stormy brow, he added hastily, ‘Never mind, my lass. You’ll have a visitor this afternoon. I met Chumney this morning when I was in Great Yafford, and I asked him to drop in at five and pay his respects to you, and eat his chop with me at seven.’ ‘What!’ cried Bella, ‘you have invited that vulgarian, your old cashier! Mr. Piper, I am ashamed of you. You have not a particle of self-respect.’ ‘Why, what’s amiss with Chumney? The most faithful servant a man ever had. Why should I cast him off because I’ve got a pretty young wife? The first Mrs. P. never made any objection to Chumney. She never said a word about the difference in the butcher’s bill, let me bring him home as often as I might. Why should you object to him?’ ‘I don’t object to him, as a faithful servant, but let him be kept in a servant’s place. Why bring him home here--a man who eats peas with his knife, and bites his bread, and is always talking of the time when you were in trade. Can’t you see that I am trying to raise the tone of your surroundings----’ ‘The tone be blowed,’ muttered Mr. Piper. ‘That I want to get you recognised by the county people; that I want to force you into the best society in the neighbourhood. You must know this, and yet you bring Chumney to spoil everything. He was at our last dinner party.’ ‘Well, he did no harm,’ growled Mr. Piper, waxing savage. ‘He was an eyesore. He was a blot upon the whole thing. Do you think I shall ever rise above your Wigzells and your Porkmans, while you weigh me down with Mr. Chumney?’ ‘My Wigzells and my Porkmans are a deal pleasanter than the stuck-up lot _you’ve_ contrived to bring about me,’ retorted Mr. Piper, ‘A pack of shabby-genteel lawyers and parsons and half-pay captains, that eat up my substance and stare me out of countenance, as if I was waxwork--and never offer me bite nor sup in return. I despise such half-and-half gentry. I’d as soon put electro-plated goods on my table as set them down to it. And as for the county,’ cried Mr. Piper, snapping his fingers derisively, ‘the county won’t have cut, shuffle, or deal with us, and wouldn’t, no, not if you were to put your eyes out upon sticks.’ This horrible expression, which Mr. Piper sometimes used when he was in a passion, overcame Bella. She began to cry, and murmured meekly that she wouldn’t so much mind Mr. Chumney coming if it was not her ‘day.’