"Well, people will talk."

"What do they say?"

The other shrugged his shoulders.

Blake rose. He had an ugly look when angry, and his language was
apt to be coarse.

"Tell them to mind their own business, and leave me and my wife
alone." That was the sense of what he said; he expressed himself
at greater length, and in stronger language.

"But, my dear Blake," urged Mr. Eppington, "for your own sake, is
it wise? There was a sort of boy and girl attachment between them-
-nothing of any moment, but all that gives colour to gossip.
Forgive me, but I am her father; I do not like to hear my child
talked about."

"Then don't open your ears to the chatter of a pack of fools,"
replied his son-in-law roughly. But the next instant a softer
expression passed over his face, and he laid his hand on the older
man's arm.

"Perhaps there are many more, but there's one good woman in the
world," he said, "and that's your daughter. Come and tell me that
the Bank of England is getting shaky on its legs, and I'll listen
to you."

But the stronger the faith, the deeper strike the roots of