“I know very well he is, then. And them as don’t go to church, or chapel, like him, have nothing to stand between them and temptation. And this is the result.” Trenchard laughed at Pinhey. “That’s where the shoe pinches—eh, Nicholas? But we mustn’t be narrow-minded because we live in a narrow valley. That’s what I tell others besides you. Kellock is a man of high feelings and great ideals. I don’t agree with much that he dreams; but I know this: that the dreamer who makes his dreams come true is the salt of the earth. He’s very young and he’s got a mighty lot to learn—and he’ll learn it. Whether he has the brains to go far I can’t say, but at present he’s very valuable to me and as he’s willing to come back, I take him back. As for Ned, I shall see him to-day and hear all that he cares to tell me. I’m heartily sorry for his troubles; but he’s a sane sort of chap, too, and no doubt has come to some conclusion about the future.” “That only leaves the woman then,” said Trood. “She’ll go in any case,” declared the master. “I won’t answer for the glazing room if she don’t,” promised Mr. Pinhey. “In a manner of speaking, after five-and-twenty years there, I may be said to set the tone of the glazing room, Mr. Trenchard, and if she were to come into it again and take her place at the crib, the other women, if I know ’em, would rise up and depart.” “Not them, Nicholas. You don’t know women if you think that. Women don’t cut off their noses to spite their faces in my experience.” “You can’t touch pitch and not be defiled, Ernest.” “Who wants to touch pitch? The girl ain’t pitch; and if she were, she’s not the sort to influence anybody. Just a silly, everyday, selfish creature, vain of her good looks and with no more sense than, please God, she should have. The mystery is that Lydia Trivett, who’s made of sense, should have put none into her child.” “She’ll go as a matter of course,” repeated Matthew Trenchard. “Her own feeling would decide that question. I hate interfering with anybody here, Pinhey, and because a great many of you pay me the compliment to consult me about your private affairs, that’s no reason why I should ever go into them on my own account.” “But when those that work under you do wrong, then, as their employer and leader, I submit in all civility it’s up to you to learn them right,” argued Nicholas. “It’s putting a bonus on sin if Kellock stops here.” Trood snorted and called Pinhey a fool; but Trenchard spoke gently to him.