‘Because he’s proud and lazy, and likes amusing himself better than working,’ said Myles, with a strong flavour of contempt and dislike in his voice. ‘Because the money’s there, and let who may have made it, choose how they’ve sweated for it, it’s got into his hands, whether he deserves it or not, and it’s his to do as he likes with--so he does what he likes with it. He’s got such a manager as there isn’t another like him in Lancashire. Mr. Sutcliffe can do anything; it’s he that has slaved and made this business what it is--the biggest in Thanshope, next to Spenceley’s. He’s got this manager, and if he chooses to think that he hasn’t got a duty in this mortal world, except to muddle his head with foreign politics, as I hear he does, and amuse himself by dancing attendance on a lot of fine ladies, and stroll about foreign countries, and stare himself blind up at pictures as big as the side of a house, and as black as my hat, and figures of men and women without any clothes on----’ ‘Lord!’ said Ben, awestruck and shocked. ‘And go rambling about, admiring scenery, and wondering what to do with himself next--well, what is it to us?’ As Wilson and Ben really did not see what it was to them, but had an uncomfortable sensation that their hitherto revered and honoured Mr. Sutcliffe was in some way a wronged and slighted individual, and that they ought to feel it all to be a great deal to them, and a subject of soreness and offence, they waited humbly for the keynote, nodding their heads, and trying to look wise. ‘It’s true,’ went on Myles, more warmly--‘it’s true, he’s got this big business here, which makes his money, and hundreds of hands who work for him, and who are, so to speak, under his care; and it’s true that some people--old-fashioned idiots, of course--might think that a big property has its duties as well as its pleasures, and that a capitalist has, or ought to have, something else to do than take and spend his money, and never inquire how he got it, nor what state the machine is in that made it for him; but what is that to us? If we’re going to have a famine in the land, it would be unpleasant for a person not accustomed to this kind of thing--all the more reason for him to keep away. My lord likes the company of lords and ladies, and he thinks Thanshope is only fit for tradespeople.’ ‘I bet he’s ne’er seen nowt finer nor the new town-hall, choose where he may have been!’ said Ben, aggressively. ‘And,’ went on Myles, whose mouth had grown very cross indeed, and whose eyebrows met in a straight line across his frowning brow, ‘he’s a _Tory_--a Tory; if I’d said that at first, I shouldn’t have needed to say all the rest. A Tory, in these times, and in Thanshope!’