. Bob was a case in point; he did not sufficiently
appreciate social distinctions. He, who wore a collar, seemed to prefer
associating with the collarless. There was Jack - more properly Jeck - Bartley,
for instance, his bosom friend until they began to cool in consequence of a
common interest in Miss Peckover. Jack never wore a collar in his life, not even
on Sundays, and was closely allied with all sorts of blackguards, who somehow
made a living on the outskirts of turf-land. And there was Eli Snape, compared
with whom Jack was a person of refinement and culture. Eli dealt surreptitiously
in dogs and rats, and the mere odour of him was intolerable to ordinary
nostrils; yet he was a species of hero in Bob's regard, such invaluable
information could he supply with regard to events in which young Hewett took a
profound interest. Perhaps a more serious aspect of Bob's disregard for social
standing was revealed in his relations with the other sex. Susceptible from his
tender youth, he showed no ambition in the bestowal of his amorous homage. At
the age of sixteen did he not declare his resolve to wed the daughter of old
Sally Budge, who went about selling watercress? and was there not a desperate
conflict at home before this project could be driven from his head? It was but
the first of many such instances. Had he been left to his own devices, he would
already, like numbers of his coevals, have been supporting (or declining to
support) a wife and two or three children. At present he was engaged to Clem
Peckover; that was an understood thing. His father did not approve it, but this
connection was undeniably better than those he had previously declared or
concealed. Bob, it seemed evident, was fated to make a mésalliance - a pity,
seeing his parts and prospects. He might have aspired to a wife who had scarcely
any difficulty with her h's; whose bringing-up enabled her to look with
compassion on girls who could not play the piano; who counted among her
relatives not one collarless individual.
    Clem, as we have seen, had already found, or imagined, cause for
dissatisfaction with her betrothed. She was well enough acquainted with Bob's
repute, and her temper made it improbable, to say the least, that the course of
wooing would in this case run very smoothly. At present, various little signs
were beginning to convince her that she had a rival, and the hints of her
rejected admirer, Jack Bartley, fixed her suspicions upon an acquaintance whom
she
