a gentleman. I said, 'Let him wait for his rent,' and I promised myself
I would just see what he would dare to do."

"I don't quite follow your argument," Denry put in.

"Perhaps you don't," she silenced him. "I didn't expect you would. You
and Mr Herbert Calvert...! So he didn't dare to do anything himself, and
he's paying you to do his dirty work for him! Very well! Very well!..."
She lifted her head defiantly. "What will happen if I don't pay the
rent?"

"I shall have to let things take their course," said Denry with a genial
smile.

"All right, then," Ruth Earp responded. "If you choose to mix yourself
up with people like Mr Herbert Calvert, you must take the consequences!
It's all the same to me, after all."

"Then it isn't convenient for you to pay anything on account?" said
Denry, more and more affable.

"Convenient!" she cried. "It's perfectly convenient, only I don't care
to. I won't pay a penny until I'm forced. Let Mr Herbert Calvert do his
worst, and then I'll pay. And not before! And the whole town shall hear
all about Mr Herbert Calvert!"

"I see," he laughed easily.

"Convenient!" she reiterated, contemptuously. "I think everybody in
Bursley knows how my _clientèle_ gets larger and larger every