"Sir!" answered his bride, and added—"Mr. Trupp's taken him on.... Mrs. Trupp's furious...."
Alf, in spite of his access of faith, never returned to chapel.
As he remarked to his mother,
"I got me principles. And I must stick to em."
"That's it," said his mother. "Stick to em—until you want to change em."
Anne Caspar cherished now no illusions about her second son.
She no longer cared for Alf—for he was no longer dependent on her; nor did she respect him. But his naïveté, the outrageous sincerity of his egotism, appealed to a certain grim sense of humour she possessed.
CHAPTER XXV
THE CHURCHMAN
Alf, with all his faults, had at least the supreme virtue of the animal living in a fiercely competitive world: he never missed a chance.