send for
the police to this old servant of his wife's; for he had never for a
moment doubted her perfect honesty. But he had intended to compel
her to tell him who the man was, and in this he was baffled. He was,
consequently, much irritated. He returned to his uncle and aunt in a
state of great annoyance and perplexity, and told them he could get
nothing out of the woman; that some man had been in the house the
night before; but that she refused to tell who he was. At this moment
his wife came in, greatly agitated, and asked what had happened to
Norah; for that she had put on her things in passionate haste, and
left the house.

'This looks suspicious,' said Mr Chadwick. 'It is not the way in which
an honest person would have acted.'

Mr Openshaw kept silence. He was sorely perplexed. But Mrs Openshaw
turned round on Mr Chadwick, with a sudden fierceness no one ever saw
in her before.

'You don't know Norah, uncle! She is gone because she is deeply hurt
at being suspected. Oh, I wish I had seen her--that I had spoken to
her myself. She would have told me anything.' Alice wrung her hands.

'I must confess,' continued Mr Chadwick to his nephew, in a lower
voice, 'I can't make you out. You used to be a word and a blow,
and oftenest the blow first; and now, when there is every cause for
suspicion, you just do nought. Your missus is a very good woman,
I grant; but she may have been put upon as well as other folk, I
suppose. If you don't send for the police, I shall.'

'Very well,' replied Mr Openshaw, surlily. 'I can't clear Norah. She
won't clear herself, as I believe she might if she would. Only I wash
my hands of it; for I am sure the woman herself is honest, and she's
lived a long time with my wife, and I don't like her to come to
shame.'

'But she will then be forced to clear herself. That, at any rate, will
be a good thing.'

'Very well, very well! I am heart-sick of the whole business. Come,
Alice, come up to the babies; they'll be in a sore way. I tell you,
uncle,' he said, turning round once more to Mr Chadwick, suddenly and
sharply, after his eye had fallen on Alice's wan, tearful, anxious
face, 'I'll have no sending for the police, after all. I'll buy my
aunt twice as handsome a brooch this very day; but I'll not have Norah
suspected, and my missus plagued. There's for you!'

He and his wife left the room. Mr Chadwick quietly waited till he was
out of hearing, and then said to his wife, 'For all Tom's h