conviction.

"Oh, no; not utterly--at any rate, not if you're independent of him," she
protested.

"Does he ever come into contact with any one who is not dependent on him?
I believe he shuns them like the pest."

"Not into close contact," she said--"at any rate, nowadays. But
I've known him to do good-natured things; and then he's very fond of
his horses."

"That makes the way he treats every human being who is in any way
dependent on him all the more disgusting," said Mr. Manley firmly.

"Oh, I don't know. It's something to be fond of animals," she said
tolerantly.

"This morning he had a devil of a row with Hutchings, the butler, you
know, and discharged him."

"That was a silly thing to do. Hutchings is not at all a good person to
have a row with," she said quickly. "I should say that he was a far more
dangerous brute than Loudwater and much more intelligent. Still, I don't
know what he could do. What was the row about?"

"Some woman sent Loudwater an anonymous letter accusing Hutchings of
having received commissions from the wine merchants."

"That would be Elizabeth Twitcher's mother. Elizabeth and Hutchings were