'I must confess,' continued Mr Chadwick to his nephew, in a lower
voice, 'I can't make you out. You used to be a word and a blow,
and oftenest the blow first; and now, when there is every cause for
suspicion, you just do nought. Your missus is a very good woman,
I grant; but she may have been put upon as well as other folk, I
suppose. If you don't send for the police, I shall.'

'Very well,' replied Mr Openshaw, surlily. 'I can't clear Norah. She
won't clear herself, as I believe she might if she would. Only I wash
my hands of it; for I am sure the woman herself is honest, and she's
lived a long time with my wife, and I don't like her to come to
shame.'

'But she will then be forced to clear herself. That, at any rate, will
be a good thing.'

'Very well, very well! I am heart-sick of the whole business. Come,
Alice, come up to the babies; they'll be in a sore way. I tell you,
uncle,' he said, turning round once more to Mr Chadwick, suddenly and
sharply, after his eye had fallen on Alice's wan, tearful, anxious
face, 'I'll have no sending for the police, after all. I'll buy my
aunt twice as handsome a brooch this very day; but I'll not have Norah
suspected, and my missus plagued. There's for you!'

He and his wife left the room. Mr Chadwick quietly waited till he was
out of hearing, and then said to his wife, 'For all Tom's heroics, I'm
just quietly going for a detective, wench. Thou need'st know nought
about it.'