ter they were married; at times he was secretly not a
little alarmed. As his wont was, he talked over the question
exhaustively with his sister, Mrs. Poole. The latter for a time refused
to converse on the subject at all. She was by no means sure that Miss
Nancarrow was in any sense a desirable acquisition to the family,
having conceived a great prejudice against her from the night when
Ackroyd had dealings with the police. A hint to this effect led to a
furious outbreak on Luke's part; he was insulted, he would leave the
house and find quarters elsewhere, his sister was a narrow-minded,
calumniating woman. He was bidden to take his departure as soon as he
liked, but somehow he did not do so. Then Mrs. Poole got her husband to
make private inquiries about Miss Nancarrow. Good-natured Jim obeyed
her, and had to confess that the report was tolerable enough; the girl
was perhaps a little harum-scarum, no worse.

'Oh, you're always so soft when there's talk about women!' exclaimed
his wife, disappointed. 'I declare you're as bad as Luke himself. I
shall see what I can find out for myself.'

She too found that no evil report was current about Totty, save that
she was a Roman Catholic. To be sure, this was bad enough, but could
not perhaps be made a ground of serious objection to the girl. So Mrs.
Poole fell back on an old line of argument.

'I'm tired of hearing about your girls!' she exclaimed, when Luke next
broached the subject. 'When it ain't one, it's another. You must find
somebody else to talk to. One thing I _do_ know--if I was a girl, I
wouldn't marry you, no, not if you'd a fortune.'

But in the end she yielded, for she saw that the matter was serious.

'I want to bring Totty here,' Luke said one night. 'I can't always see
her in the street, and there's no other handy place. What do you say,
Jane?'

'You must do as you like. There's the parlour you're welcome to. But
you mustn't go bringing her down here, mind. I've an idea her and me
won't quite hit it. You're welcome to the parlour.'

Further quarrels and reconcilements led to a modification of this
standpoint; Mrs. Poole at length said that she was willing to be
introduced to Totty, and sent an invitation to tea for Sunday evening.

'Let him get married, and have done with it,' she said to her husband.
'I shall have no peace till he does. He worrits my life out.'

'He'll worrit you a good deal more afterwards, if I'm not mistook,'
remarked Jim, with a