Mrs Malpas pursed her lips. ‘Going on! That’s the word. I wrote to you, George. You got my letter?’ ‘Yes, I got that all right.’ Mrs Malpas grew intense. Her hands trembled with emotion. ‘She’s a bad woman, George. Downright bad. I told you so before.’ ‘There’s not another kid waiting for me, no surprise packet of that kind?’ ‘No. But she’s that deceitful, George. She’s no better than her father. She couldn’t have used you worse than she has. So open! You never made a worse mistake.’ ‘You let me teach her!’ said George between his teeth. ‘I’ll learn her her bleeding duty!’ ‘Don’t swear, George!’ ‘You ought to be more shocked at her than me!’ ‘And that Fellows is no better. Rotten bad. Always going after women. There’s Susie Hind.’ ‘God! He’s welcome!’ ‘And Mr Prosser’s daughter. They had to turn him off The Dyke.’ ‘Her?’ George laughed. ‘He’s a proper young bull!’ ‘And all the time living as man and wife with Mary. Laughing at you, the two of them, behind your back.’ ‘I’ll see to that!’ said George grimly. The liquor was spreading in hot fumes through his brain. ‘But you won’t go up to-night, George,’ she said anxiously. ‘Won’t I? You bet I will.’ ‘You’d best stay here, George. Don’t you go near her. She’ll talk you round.’ ‘I’ll shut her mouth for her. And I’ll get level with him too!’ The old woman grew alarmed. ‘Don’t go near them, George,’ she pleaded. ‘There’s a home for you here. Leave them to it. They’re not worth taking the notice of.’ ‘What about the kids, eh?’ ‘Fellows will have set them again you. They won’t know you. You see!’ ‘That’s what I’m going to do.’ He grew excited. ‘And I tell you, if I have to do time again I’m going to put that b— on his back!’ He put down his tankard with another oath. One of the drinkers in the bar knocked at the counter. ‘Keep still till I’m back, George. I won’t be a minute,’ she said. ‘Get us another pint, then,’ George grumbled. She took his tankard, and having given the labourers their change and wished them good-night, she brought it back to him filled. God would forgive her this sin. Even if he were drunk she wanted to keep him at the Buffalo, for she dreaded Abner’s strength. When she returned he was still on his feet, talking indistinctly to the old man, who was shaken by a fit of coughing that choked him. She thumped his back. ‘That’s right, dad,’ said George. ‘Better out than in!’ The joke appeared to please him. She drew him down gently to his chair and gave him the tankard. ‘Sit down, my dear,’ she said. ‘I want to talk to you.’ ‘I’ve done talking,’ said George obstinately. ‘Let me get at him: that’s what I want. Let me get at the dirty pair of them!’ She bent over him and whispered in his ear.