came home last night;--very bad indeed. You
couldn't have got in at the door only for me."

"That's nonsense."

"But it is quite true. It's a mercy, T., that neither of the girls
saw you. Only think! But there'll be nothing more of that kind, I'm
sure, when we are out of this horrid place; and it wouldn't have
happened now, only for all this trouble."

To this Tappitt made no answer, but he grunted, and again said that
he thought he would get up.

"Of course it's settled now, T., that we're to leave this place."

"I don't know that at all."

"Then, T., you ought to know it. Come now; just look at the common
sense of the thing. If we don't give up the brewery what are we to
do? There isn't a decent respectable person in the town in favour
of our staying here, only that rascal Sharpit. You desired me this
morning to write and tell him you'd have nothing more to do with
him; and so I did." Tappitt had not seen his wife's letter to the
lawyer,--had not asked to see it, and now became aware that his only
possible supporter might probably have been driven away from him.
Sharpit too, though dangerous as an enemy, was ten times more
dangerous as a friend!

"Of course you'll take that young man's offer. Shall I sit down and
write a line to Honyman, and tell him to come in the morning?"

Tappitt groaned again and again, said that he would get up, but
Mrs. T. would not let him out of bed till he had assented to her
proposition that Honyman should be again invited to the brewery. He
knew well that the battle was gone from him,--had in truth known it
through all those half-comatose hours of his bedridden day. But a
man, or a nation, when yielding must still resist even in yielding.
Tappitt fumed and fussed under the clothes, protesting that his
sending for Honyman would be useless. But the letter was written in
his name and sent with his knowledge; and it was perfectly understood
that that invitation to Honyman signified an unconditional surrender
on the part of Mr. Tappitt. One word Mrs. T. said as she allowed her
husband to escape from his prison amidst the blankets, one word by
which to mark that the thing was done, and one word only. "I suppose
we needn't leave the house for about a month or so,--because it would
be inconvenient about the furniture."

"Who's to turn you out if you stay for six months?" said Tappitt.

The thing was marked enough then, and Mrs. Tappitt retired in muffled
triumph,--retired when she ha