But his wife knew him well enough, as did every one else who lived all day in the yard.

She was a good-natured woman.

It was she who had got the fire lighted and the tea ready for them when Diamond and his mother came home from Sandwich.

And her husband was not an ill-natured man either, and when in the morning he recalled not only Diamond's visit, but how he himself had behaved to his wife, he was very vexed with himself, and gladdened his poor wife's heart by telling her how sorry he was.

And for a whole week after, he did not go near the public-house, hard as it was to avoid it, seeing a certain rich brewer had built one, like a trap to catch souls and bodies in, at almost every corner he had to pass on his way home.