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‘Why don’t you take this opportunity and get rid of him?’ asked the lodger in her matter-of-fact tone.

‘Oh, miss!’

‘Yes, it’s your plain duty to do so. He gives your house a bad character; he sets a bad example to your husband; he has a bad influence on your daughters.’

‘Oh! miss, I don’t think’

‘Just so, Mrs. Turpin; you don’t think. If you had, you would long ago have noticed that his behaviour to those girls is not at all such as it should be. More than once I have chanced to hear bits of talk, when either Mabel or Lily was in his sitting-room, and didn’t like the tone of it. In plain English, the man is a blackguard.’

Mrs. Turpin gasped.

‘But, miss, you forget what family he belongs to.’

‘Don’t be a simpleton, Mrs. Turpin. The blackguard is found in every rank of life. Now, suppose you go to him as soon as he gets up, and quietly give him notice. You’ve no idea how much better you would feel after it.’

But Mrs. Turpin trembled at the suggestion. It was evident that no ordinary argument or persuasion would bring her to such a step. Miss Rodney put the matter aside for the moment.

She had found no difficulty in getting information about Mr. Rawcliffe. It was true that he belonged to a family of some esteem in the Wattleborough neighbourhood, but his father had died in embarrassed circumstances, and his mother was now the wife of a prosperous merchant in another town. To his stepfather Rawcliffe owed an expensive education and two or three starts in life. He was in his second year of articles to a Wattle-borough solicitor, but there seemed little probability of his ever earning a living by the law, and reports of his excesses which reached the stepfather’s ears had begun to make the young man’s position decidedly precarious. The incumbent of St. Luke’s, whom Rawcliffe had more than once insulted, took much interest in Miss Rodney’s design against this common enemy; he could not himself take active part in the campaign, but he never met the High School mistress without inquiring what progress she had made. The conquest of Turpin, who now for several weeks had kept sober, and spent his evenings in mathematical study, was a most encouraging circumstance; but Miss Rodney had no thought of using her influence over her landlady’s husband to assail Rawcliffe’s position. She would rely upon herself alone, in this as in all other undertakings.

Only by constant watchfulness and energy did she maintain her control over Mrs. Turpin, who was ready at any moment to relapse into her old slatternly ways. It was not enough to hold the ground that had been gained; there must be progressive conquest; and to this end Miss Rodney one day broached a subject which had already been discussed between her and her clerical ally.

‘Why do you keep both your girls at home, Mrs. Turpin?’ she asked.

‘What should I do with them, miss? I don’t hold with sending girls into shops, or else they’ve an aunt in Birmingham, who’s manageress of–‘

‘That isn’t my idea,’ interposed Miss Rodney quietly. ‘I have been asked if I knew of a girl who would go into a country-house not far from here as second housemaid, and it occurred to me that Lily–‘

A sound of indignant protest escaped the landlady, which Miss Rodney, steadily regarding her, purposely misinterpreted.

‘No, no, of course, she is not really capable of taking such a position. But the lady of whom I am speaking would not mind an untrained girl, who came from a decent house. Isn’t it worth thinking of?’

Mrs. Turpin was red with suppressed indignation, but as usual she could not look her lodger defiantly in the face.

‘We’re not so poor, miss,’ she exclaimed, ‘that we need send our daughters into service,’

‘Why, of course not, Mrs. Turpin, and that’s one of the reasons why Lily might suit this lady.’