"Do you know where she'd be if everyone had his rights?"
"Where then?"
"Lewes Gaol."
His message delivered, he sat back with a nod to watch its effect.
"And she would be there too," continued Alf, "only for me."
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Caspar asked.
"I mean," answered Alf, "as I keep her out of prison by keepin me mouth shut." He dropped his voice. "And that ain't all. She's at it again ... Her home's a knockin-shop.... All the young men.... The police ought to interfere.... I shall tell the Archdeacon.... A kept woman.... That chap Burt.... That's how Ern makes good.... She makes the money he spends at the Star.... And your grand-children brought up in that atmosphere!" He struck the table. "But I'm her landlord all the same; and I'll make her know it yet."
Anne Caspar was genuinely disturbed not for the sake of Ruth, but for that of the children.
"You could never turn her out!" she said—"not your own sister-in-law and four children! Look so bad and all—and you a sidesman too."
Alf snorted.