For his refusal to recognise Pennyloaf he had absolutely no grounds, save--I use the words advisedly--an aristocratic prejudice.

Bob had married deplorably beneath him; it was unpardonable, let the character of the girl be what it might.

Of course you recognise the item in John Hewett's personality which serves to explain this singular attitude.

But, viewed generally, it was one of those bits of human inconsistency over which the observer smiles, and which should be recommended to good people in search of arguments for the equality of men.
After that little dialogue, Bob went home in a disagreeable temper.

To begin with, his mood had been ruffled, for the landlady at his lodgings--the fourth to which he had removed this year--was 'nasty' about a week or two of unpaid rent, and a man on whom he had counted this evening for the payment of a debt was keeping out of his way.