f its periodical
cleanings, and consequently dinner was served upstairs, and not in the
half-underground breakfast-room, as it was called, which was the real
living-room of the family. Mr. Furze, being late and weary, prolonged
his stay at home till nearly four o'clock, and, notwithstanding a rebuke
from Mrs. Furze, insisted on smoking his pipe in the dining-room.
Presently he took off his coat and put his feet on a chair, Sunday
fashion.

"My dear," said his wife. "I don't want to interfere with your comfort,
but don't you think you might give up that practice of sitting in your
shirt-sleeves now we have moved?"

"Why because we've moved?" interposed Catharine.

"Catharine, I did not address you; you have no tact, you do not
understand."

"Coat doesn't smell so much of smoke," replied Mr. Furze, giving, of
course, any reason but the true reason.

"My dear if that is the reason, put on another coat, or, better still,
buy a proper coat and a smoking-cap. Nothing could be more appropriate
than some of those caps we saw at the restoration bazaar."

"Really, mother, would you like to see father in a velvet jacket and one
of those red-tasselled things on his head? I prefer the shirt-sleeves."

"No doubt you do; you are a Furze, every inch of you."

There is no saying to what a height the quarrel would have risen if a
double knock had not been heard. A charwoman was in the passage with a
pail of water and answered the door at once, before she could be
cautioned. In an instant she appeared, apron tucked up.

"Mrs. Colston, mum," and in Mrs. Colston walked.

Mrs. Furze made a dash at her husband's clay pipe, forgetting that its
destruction would not make matters better; but she only succeeded in
upsetting the chair on which his legs rested, and in the confusion he
slipped to the ground.

"Oh, Mrs. Colston, I am so sorry you have taken us by surprise; our house
is being cleaned; pray walk upstairs--but oh dear, now I recollect the
drawing-room is also turned out; what _will_ you do, and the smell of the
smoke, too!"

"Pray do not disconcert yourself," replied the brewer's wife,
patronisingly; "I do not mind the smoke, at least for a few minutes."

Mrs. Colston herself had objected strongly to calling on Mrs. Furze, but
Mr. Colston had urged it as a matter of policy, with a view to Mr.
Furze's contributions to Church revenues.

"I have come purely on a matter of business, Mrs. Furze, and will not
detain yo