r liked them less and less. She was averse to my
joining them in Bradfield, and it was only by my sudden movement at the
end that I escaped a regular prohibition. When I got there, the very
first question she asked (when I told her of their prosperity) was
whether they had paid their Avonmouth creditors. I was compelled to
answer that they had not. In reply she wrote imploring me to come away,
and saying that, poor as our family was, none of them had ever fallen so
low as to enter into a business partnership with a man of unscrupulous
character and doubtful antecedents. I answered that Cullingworth spoke
sometimes of paying his creditors, that Mrs. Cullingworth was in favour
of it also, and that it seemed to me to be unreasonable to expect that I
should sacrifice a good opening on account of things with which I had
no connection. I assured her that if Cullingworth did anything from then
onwards which seemed to me dishonourable, I would disassociate myself
from him, and I mentioned that I had already refused to adopt some of
his professional methods. Well, in reply to this, my mother wrote a
pretty violent letter about what she thought of Cullingworth, which led
to another from me defending him, and showing that there were some deep
and noble traits in his character. That produced another still more
outspoken letter from her; and so the correspondence went on, she
attacking and I defending, until a serious breach seemed to be opening
between us. I refrained from writing at last, not out of ill temper, but
because I thought that if she were given time she would cool down, and
take, perhaps, a more reasonable view of the situation. My father, from
the short note which he sent me, seemed to think the whole business
absolutely irregular, and to refuse to believe my accounts of
Cullingworth's practice and receipts. This double opposition, from the
very people whose interests had really been nearest my heart in the
whole affair, caused me to be less disappointed than I should otherwise
have been when it all came to an end. In fact, I was quite in the humour
to finish it myself when Fate did it for me.

Now about the Cullingworths. Madam is as amiable as ever; and yet
somehow, unless I am deceiving myself, she has changed somewhat of late
in her feelings towards me. I have turned upon her suddenly more than
once, and caught the skirt of a glance which was little less than
malignant. In one or two small matters I have also detect