CHAPTER XVIII
NED HEARS MR. KNOX
Kellock thought twice about going to see Ned Dingle, for instinct told him that what might seem a reasonable course to such a reasonable being as himself, would possibly appear in another light to Medora’s husband. But he reflected that, as the more intelligent and better educated man, it was his place to act. Even should Dingle use violence, that much he must be prepared to face, if by so doing he could advance the situation between them.
Ned was still at his house, and, on an evening in early April, when the trees of Ashprington were washed with green again and the white blossoms of the pears opened ghostly to the embrace of the east wind, Jordan called.
Ned himself opened the door.
“You!” he said. “What the hell do you want? I’ve kept off you—God knows how. Are you asking for it?”
“I want to do what’s right, Mr. Dingle. I haven’t come for any less reason. I beg you’ll let me speak to you.”
Ned breathed through his nostrils and did not reply immediately. At last he answered.
“To do what’s right! You’ll never do what’s right, because you’re a hypocrite, and all your talk about helping labour and the rest of it is humbug and lies coming from a thing like you. You’re the worst sort of man—the sort that does his dirty work behind a lot of cant and pretended virtue and honesty. The gutter’s too good for you.”