Roger, however, though he commented little on the episode of the assault, and felt in every way the least said, soonest mended, borrowed his father-in-law’s riding-horse and rode early one morning over to Tilehurst. He entered the factory, of design, just as Mr. Baines was about to take his seat in the office and run his eyes over the day’s orders. "Oh, don’t be alarmed!" he said to Mr. Baines, who was instinctively about to withdraw, guessing his visitor’s identity. "I’m not a violent heathen like your wife. Sit down and let us talk this over like sensible men." He then put the matter very plainly before Mr. Baines. Mrs. Baines, summoned by half-fearful, half-exultant Eliza, had "locked herself in her bedroom, she ’ave an’ ast me to go for the police!" "Then you, too," said Roger to the startled Eliza, "remain and hear what I have to say. Since your termagant of a mistress refuses to come, you shall repeat my words to her. You are, from what my wife tells me, an old and trusted servant of the family" (Eliza bridled and pleated the hem of her apron). "When she returns to sanity, you may get a chance of saying a word to your mistress in season, even if her husband has not the courage to do so. Tell her then, if she ever annoys or slanders or upsets my wife in any way I will leave no stone unturned to punish her. And if she appears at Church Farm or anywhere else again with the intention of assaulting my wife I will knock her on the head like the mad dog she is. Now you can leave us. But I trust also to you as an honourable woman and one who was sincerely fond of poor John Baines, who ought never to be connected with these hateful sayings and doings, not to chatter about this business outside this house." And Eliza did not. She was much impressed by Brentham’s appeal. The interview with John’s father even ended in a kind of reconciliation. He heard from Brentham for the first time the whole story, so far as it was known, of the circumstances which led up to the attack on the station, John’s death, and Lucy’s journey to the coast; of how her baby had died and how ill she had been; of the Stotts, and of Ann Jamblin’s obstinacy. Roger purposely prolonged the interview. It was doing the miserable father good, and was keeping Mrs. Baines a prisoner in her bedroom just when she wanted to be busy at house-work.