She had; and was distraught.
"If he takes to that, I'll turn him out of the house!" she cried savagely. "Straight I will!"
And there was no question that she meant what she said.
"The best way to make trouble is to meet it half-way," muttered the schoolmaster, cowed for once by the woman's terrible emotion. "Give the boy a chance—even if he is your own son."
"Alf says he was blind at the match," the other answered doggedly.
"Alf!" scoffed Mr. Pigott, savage in his turn. "I wouldn't care that what Alf says about his brother. I know your Alf."
"And I don't then," said Mrs. Caspar. "I try to keep it fair between em—for all what folks may say different."
That evening Mr. Pigott met Alf in Church Street.
The schoolmaster stopped, holding with his eye the youth in the stained blue overall. Alf approached him delicately, with averted face and a sly smile.
It was clear that he courted the encounter.