"Daniel Ironsyde is built like his father, to let well alone. Raymond
Ironsyde don't count. He'll only want his money."

"Have you ever seen Mr. Raymond?" asked a girl. She was Nancy Buckler,
a spinner--hard-featured, sharp-voiced, and wiry. Nancy might have been
any age between twenty-five and forty. She owned to thirty.

"He don't come to Bridetown, and if you want to see him, you must go to
'The Tiger,' at Bridport," declared another girl. Her name was Sarah
Northover.

"My Aunt Nelly keeps 'The Seven Stars,' in Barrack Street," she
explained, "and that's just alongside 'The Tiger,' and my Aunt Nelly's
very friendly with Mr. Gurd, of 'The Tiger,' and he's told her that
Mr. Raymond is there half his time. He's all for sport and such like, and
'The Tiger's' a very sporting house."

"He won't be no good to the mills if he's that sort," prophesied Sally
Groves.

"I saw him once, with another young fellow called Motyer," answered
Sarah Northover. "He's very good-looking--fair and curly--quite
different from Mr. Daniel."

"Light or dark, they're Henry Ironsyde's sons and be brought up in his
pattern no doubt," declared Mr. Baggs.

People continued to appear, and among them walked an elderly man, a
woman and a girl. They were Mr. Ernest Churchouse, of 'The Magnolias,'