."

"I must bear it, George. I've been a-bearing a long while, and I'm
partly used to it. But, George, it isn't a pleasure to me. It isn't a
pleasure to a poor old father to be nagged at by his daughters from
his very breakfast down to his very supper. And they comes to me
sometimes in bed, nagging at me worse than ever."

"My heart has often bled for you, Mr. Brown."

"I know it has, George; and that's why I've loved you and trusted
you. And now you won't quarrel with me, will you, though I have a
little thrown you over like?"

What was Robinson to say? Of course he forgave him. It was in his
nature to forgive; and he would even have forgiven Maryanne at that
moment, had she come to him and asked him. But she was asleep in her
bed, dreaming, perchance, of that big Philistine whom she had chosen
as her future lord. A young David, however, might even yet arise, who
should smite that huge giant with a stone between the eyes.

Then did Mr. Brown communicate to his partner those arrangements as
to grouping which his younger daughter had suggested for the opening
of the house. When Robinson first heard that Maryanne intended to be
there, he declared his intention of standing by her side, though he
would not deign even to look her in the face. "She shall see that she
has no power over me, to make me quail," he said. And then he was
told that Brisket also would be there; Maryanne had begged the favour
of him, and he had unwillingly consented. "It is hard to bear," said
Robinson, "very hard. But it shall be borne. I do not remember ever
to have heard of the like."

"He won't come often, George, you may be sure."

"That I should have planned these glories for him! Well, well; be it
so. What is the pageantry to me? It has been merely done to catch the
butterflies, and of these he is surely the largest. I will sit alone
above, and work there with my brain for the service of the firm,
while you below are satisfying the eyes of the crowd."

And so it had been, as was told in that chapter which was devoted to
the opening day of the house. Robinson had sat alone in the very room
in which he had encountered Brisket, and had barely left his seat
for one moment when the first rush of the public into the shop had
made his heart leap within him. There the braying of the horn in
the street, and the clatter of the armed horsemen on the pavement,
and the jokes of the young boys, and the angry threatenings of the
policemen, reached h