‘Sit down, will you?’ he said quietly, pointing to a chair.
His tone availed more than anger would have done.
‘You tell me I take good care not to do any work myself? There you’re wrong. I’m working hard every day.’
‘Oh, we know what kind of work that is!’
‘No, I don’t think you do. Perhaps it would be as well if you were to see. I think you’d better go to Wanley with me.’
‘What for?’
‘I dare say I can give you a job for awhile.’
‘I tell you I don’t want a job.’
Richard’s eye wandered rather vacantly. From the first it had been a question with him whether it would not be best to employ ‘Arry at Wanley, but on the whole the scheme adopted seemed more fruitful. Had the works been fully established it would have been a different thing. Even now he could keep the lad at work at Wanley, though not exactly in the way he desired. But if it came to a choice between a life of idleness in London and such employment as could be found for him at the works, ‘Arry must clearly leave town at once. In a few days the Manor would be furnished; in a few weeks Emma would be there to keep house.
There was the difficulty of leaving his mother and sister alone. It looked as if all would have to quit London. Yet there would be awkwardness in housing the whole family at the Manor; and besides—