Rendal, foolishly joking in his cups, had urged as extenuation of his own weakness the well-known fact that 'Arry Mutimer had been seen one evening unmistakably intoxicated in the street of Wanley village.

Someone reported these words to Richard, and from that moment it was all over with the Rendals.
Adela, in her eagerness to plead, quite forgot (or perhaps she had never known) that with a certain order of men it is never wise to prefer a request immediately before dinner.

She was eager, too, to speak at once; a fear, which she would not allow to become definite, drove her upon the undertaking without delay.

Meeting Richard on the stairs she begged him to come to her room.
'What is it ?' he asked with small ceremony, as soon as the door closed behind him.
She mastered her voice, and spoke with a sweet clearness of advocacy which should have moved his heart to proud and noble obeisance.

Mutimer was not very accessible to such emotions.
'It's like the fellow's impertinence,' he said, 'to send his children to you.