"Well, I'm going to tell you something now; so keep your ears open. Madge, where is the girl?" "Up-stairs." "Where's the man?" "Outside, in the stable, doing down your horse. Bend over the fire, and whisper in my ear, lad!" "Madge, old girl," he whispered, as they bent their heads together,--"I've wrote the old man's name where I oughtn't to have done." "What! again!" she answered. "Three times! For God's sake, mind what you're at, George." "Why," said he, astonished, "did you know I'd done it before?" "Twice I know of," she said. "Once last year, and once last month. How do you think he'd have been so long without finding it out if it hadn't been for me? And what a fool you were not to tell me before. Why, you must be mad. I as near let the cat out of the bag coming over that last business in the book without being ready for it, as anything could be. However, it's all right at present. But what's this last?" "Why, the five hundred. I only did it twice." "You mustn't do it again, George. You were a fool ever to do it without me. We are hardly safe now, if he should get talking to the bank people. However, he never goes there, and you must take care he don't." "I say, Madge," said George, "what would he do if he found it out?" "I couldn't answer for him," said she. "He likes you best of anything next his money; and sometimes I am afraid he wouldn't spare even you if he knew he had been robbed. You might make yourself safe for any storm, if you liked." "How?" "Marry that little doll Thornton, and get her money. Then, if it came to a row, you could square it up." "Well," said George, "I am pushing that on. The old man won't come round, and I want her to go off with me, but she can't get her courage up yet." "Well, at all events," said Madge, "you should look sharp. There's a regular tight-laced mob about her, and they all hate you. There's that Mrs. Buckley. Her conversation will be very different from yours, and she'll see the difference, and get too proud for the like of you. That woman's a real lady, and that's very dangerous, for she treats her like an equal. Just let that girl get over her first fancy for you, and she'll care no more about you than nothing. Get hold of her before she's got tired of you." "And there's another thing," said George. "That Tom Troubridge is staying there again." "That's very bad," said Madge. "She is very likely to take a fancy to him. He's a fine young fellow. You get her to go off with you. I'll find the money, somehow. Here comes the old man." Old Hawker came in half-drunk and sulky. "Why, George," he said; "you at home. I thought you'd have been down, hanging about the parson's. You don't get on very fast with that girl, lad. I thought you'd have had her by now. You're a fool, boy." He reeled up to bed, and left the other two in the kitchen. "George," said Madge, "tell us what you did with that last money." "I ain't going to tell you," he answered.