And on the whole she could, vastly better than might have been expected of her birth and breeding. At six o’clock a note was delivered for her. Richard wrote from an hotel in the neighbourhood, asking her to come to him. She found him in a private sitting-room, taking a meal. ‘Why didn’t you come to the house?’ she asked. ‘You knew mother never comes down-stairs.’ Richard looked at her with lowered brows. ‘You mean to say she’s doing that in earnest?’ ‘That she is She comes down early in the morning and gets all the food she wants for the day. I heard her cooking something in a frying-pan to-day. She hasn’t been out of the house yet.’ ‘Does she know about Jane?’ ‘No. I know what it would be if I went and told her.’ He ate in silence. Alice waited. ‘You must go and see Emma,’ was his next remark. ‘Tell her there’s a grave in Manor Park Cemetery; her father and mother were buried there, you know. Keene ‘ll look after it all and he’ll come and tell you what to do.’ ‘Why did you come up?’ ‘Oh, I couldn’t talk about these things in letters. You’ll have to tell mother; she might want to go to the funeral.’ ‘I don’t see why I should do all your disagreeable work, Dick!’ ‘Very well, don’t do it,’ he replied sullenly, throwing down his knife and fork. A scene of wrangling followed, without violence, but of the kind which is at once a cause and an effect of demoralisation. The old disagreements between them had been in another tone, at all events on Richard’s side, for they had arisen from his earnest disapproval of frivolities and the like. Richard could no longer speak in that way. To lose the power of honest reproof in consequence of a moral lapse is to any man a wide-reaching calamity; to a man of Mutimer’s calibre it meant disaster of which the end could not be foreseen. Of course Alice yielded; her affection and Richard’s superior force always made it a foregone result that she should do so. ‘And you won’t come and see mother?’ she asked. ‘No. She’s behaving foolishly.’ ‘It’s precious dull at home, I can tell you. I can’t go on much longer without friends of some kind. I’ve a good mind to marry Mr. Keene, just for a change.’ Richard started up, with his fist on the table. ‘Do you mean to say he’s been talking to you in that way?’ he cried angrily. Alice had spoken with thoughtless petulance. She hastened eagerly to correct her error. ‘As if I meant it! Don’t be stupid, Dick. Of course he hasn’t said a word; I believe he’s engaged to somebody; I thought so from something he said a little while ago. The idea of me marrying a man like that!’ He examined her closely, and Alice was not afraid of telltale cheeks. ‘Well, I can’t think you’d be such a fool. If I thought there was any danger of that, I’d soon stop it.’ ‘Would you, indeed! Why, that would be just the way to make me say I’d have him. You’d have known that if only you read novels.’