On the one hand, his wife had had her way--how was he to prevent it?
On the other, his religious sense had kept pricking and tormenting--like the gadfly that it was.
Who, in the name of fortune, was to ask Hannah for money to send the boy to Manchester and apprentice him?
And who was going to write to Mr.Gurney about it without her leave?
Once upset the system of things on which those two half-yearly cheques depended, how many more of them would be forthcoming?
And how was Hannah going to put up with the loss of them?
It made Reuben shiver to think of it.
Shouts from the lane behind.

Reuben suddenly raised himself and made for the gate at the corner of the farmyard.

He came out upon the children, who had been to Sunday school at Clough End since dinner, and were now in consequence in a state of restless animal spirits.

Louie was swinging violently on the gate which barred the path on to the moor.

David was shying stones at a rook's nest opposite, the clatter of the outraged colony to which it belonged sounding as music in his ears.
They stared when they saw Reuben cross the road, sit down on a stone beside David, and take out his pipe.