to me at the moment
that it would be necessary I should have formal evidence that Jack
was conspiring against the laws before I could send him to jail. I
had no more power over him in that respect than on any one else. Had
I declared that he should be sent to bed without his supper, I should
have expressed myself better both as a father and a magistrate.

I went home, and on entering the house the first person that I saw
was Eva. Now, as this matter went on, I became full of wrath with
my son, and with my wife, and with poor old Crasweller; but I never
could bring myself to be angry with Eva. There was a coaxing, sweet,
feminine way with her which overcame all opposition. And I had
already begun to regard her as my daughter-in-law, and to love
her dearly in that position, although there were moments in which
Jack's impudence and new spirit of opposition almost tempted me to
disinherit him.

"Eva," I said, "what is this that I hear of a public meeting in the
streets?"

"Oh, Mr Neverbend," she said, taking me by the arm, "there are only
a few boys who are talking about papa." Through all the noises and
tumults of these times there was an evident determination to speak
of Jack as a boy. Everything that he did and all that he said were
merely the efflux of his high spirits as a schoolboy. Eva always
spoke of him as a kind of younger brother. And yet I soon found that
the one opponent whom I had most to fear in Britannula was my own
son.

"But why," I asked, "should these foolish boys discuss the serious
question respecting your dear father in the public street?"

"They don't want to have him--deposited," she said, almost sobbing as
she spoke.

"But, my dear," I began, determined to teach her the whole theory of
the Fixed Period with all its advantages from first to last.

But she interrupted me at once. "Oh, Mr Neverbend, I know what a good
thing it is--to talk about. I have no doubt the world will be a great
deal the better for it. And if all the papas had been deposited for
the last five hundred years, I don't suppose that I should care so
much about it. But to be the first that ever it happened to in all
the world! Why should papa be the first? You ought to begin with some
weak, crotchety, poor old cripple, who would be a great deal better
out of the way. But papa is in excellent health, and has all his wits
about him a great deal better than Mr Grundle. He manages everything
at Little Christchurch, and manage