This concerned Mr.Pyecroft.

Mr.Pyecroft, it seemed, was becoming an even greater favorite with Jack and Mary--particularly with Mary.

He had confided to them that he was weary of his escapades, and wanted to settle down; in fact, there was a girl--the nicest girl in the world, begging Mary's pardon--who had promised to marry him as soon as he had become launched in honorable work.

The trouble was, he knew that no business man would employ him in a responsible capacity, and so his last departures from strict rectitude had been for the purpose of securing the capital to set himself up in some small but independent way.
His story, Matilda admitted, had captured Mary's heart.
Judge Harvey, however, still smarting under his indignity, would on his evening calls scarcely speak to Mr.Pyecroft.Nonetheless, Mr.
Pyecroft had continued regretful and polite.

Once or twice, Judge Harvey, forgetting his resentment, had been drawn into discussions of points of law with Mr.Pyecroft.To Matilda, who, of course, knew nothing about law, it had seemed that Mr.Pyecroft talked almost as well as the Judge himself.