The new porter had endured a hard week; all the tricks of an inventive staff had been played upon him, and Porter Swan took a lively interest in these, prompting colleagues to further efforts. Now that young Mannering arrived with his troubles and appealed for help, games were set aside. “She’s evidently a terror,” admitted Porter Swan presently. “If you’d only come and asked me at the outset I might have told you where to go. ’Pon me word, I don’t know quite now what to be up to!” “If you don’t,” said young Mannering hopelessly, “then no one does.” “Why not go back and make the best of it for a while?” “Mr. Swan,” declared the youth tearfully, “I do assure you her chops are worse than her vegetables, and her vegetables worse than her chops. I was bound to leave.” “And you want your property, then, without paying too much?” “I’d rayther get it without paying nothing at all.” Porter Swan went off duty at seven, having first washed with unusual vigour and changed his official headgear for the bowler hat of private life. Near the suburban station he bought a cigar, and, lighting it, strode towards Railway Terrace, rehearsing the coming debate on the way. At the door of No. 17 he gave a sharp, definite knock and frowned at some children who ran up to watch the course of events. He had to knock again, and this time also rattled the flap of the letter-box to express impatience. “Well?” asked the trim, determined woman at the open doorway. “What are you kicking up all this row for?” “I don’t want to make any unpleasantness, or any un-anything else,” he began truculently, “but you’ve got a tin box belonging to one of our young men, and I have to request, ma’am, that you hand it over to me at your early convenience.” “Pay me his week’s board and lodging, and you can take not only the tin box, but all that’s in it.” “Goes against the grain,” he said loudly, “to argue with a lady, but I ask you one simple question. Have you, since you’ve taken to letting, ever had a lodger that stayed so long as a month?” “The last two,” she replied calmly, “stayed until they got married.” “They must have had iron constitutions,” he argued. “Martha!” she called, turning her head. “Yes, mother.” “Did you hear what this gentleman said?” “Yes, mother.” “It’s as well,” she remarked to him, “to have a witness. Makes all the difference in a court of law.” She found her handkerchief. “I’ve always made it a special boast that I never had to tell a lodger to go, and I do think it’s hard—” “Look here, ma’am,” said Porter Swan, still in aggressive tones, “we don’t want to quarrel. We want to arrange this trifling affair in a nice, sensible, amicable way.” “If you’re going to settle it,” she said, “I’ll go and make out the bill.” “Let me understand first of all,” repressing annoyance. “What does your claim actually amount to?” She mentioned the sum.