work a day is nothing, if you don't do anything. A
man may sweat hard digging holes and filling them up again. But what
I say is, he does not do any good. You've been making out all these
long stories about things that never existed, but what's the world
the better for it;--that's what I want to know. When a man makes
a pair of shoes--." And so he went on. Coming from such a man as
Poppins, this was hard to be borne. But nevertheless Robinson did
bear it. Men at the "Goose and Gridiron" also would shoulder him
now-a-days, rather than make way for him. Geese whose names had never
been heard beyond the walls of that room would presume to occupy his
place. And on one occasion, when he rose to address the chamber, the
Grand omitted the courtesy that had ever been paid to him, and forgot
to lay down his pipe. This also he bore without flinching.

It was about the middle of February when a catastrophe happened which
was the immediate forerunner of the fall of the house. Robinson had
been at his desk early in the morning,--for, though his efforts were
now useless, he was always there; and had been struck with dismay by
the loudness of Maryanne's tone as she rebuked her father. Then Mrs.
Jones had joined them, and the battle had raged still more furiously.
The voice of the old man, too, was heard from time to time. When
roused by suffering to anger he would forget to speak in his usual
falsetto treble, and break out in a few natural words of rough
impassioned wrath. At about ten, Mr. Brown came down into Robinson's
room, and, seating himself on a low chair, remained there for awhile
without moving, and almost without speaking. "Is she gone, George?"
he asked at last. "Which of them?" said Robinson.

"Sarah Jane. I'm not so used to her, and it's very bad." Then
Robinson looked out and said that Mrs. Jones was gone. Whereupon Mr.
Brown returned to his own room.

Again and again throughout the day Robinson heard the voices; but
he did not go up to the room. He never did go there now, unless
specially called upon to do so by business. At about noon, however,
there came a sudden silence,--a silence so sudden that he noticed it.
And then he heard a quick step across the floor. It was nothing to
him, and he did not move from his seat; but still he kept his ears
open, and sat thoughtless of other matters, as though he expected
that something was about to happen. The room above was perfectly
still, and for a minute or two nothing wa