His mother held her peace, knowing she was right, but not knowing how to answer what she thought his cleverness.
“I mean to go and see them, mother,” he said.
“You'll repent it, Richard. The woman is not respectable!”
“She won't bite me!”
“There's worse than biting!”
“I allow,” pursued Richard, “she may take a drop too much; her nose does look a little suspicious! But if she ain't what she should be, it's hard lines Arthur and Alice should suffer for the sins of their mother.”
“The Bible says the sins of the fathers are visited on the children.”
“The Bible! If the Bible says what ain't right, are we to do it?”
“Richard, I'll have no such word spoken again in my house!” exclaimed his mother.
“Are you going to turn me out, mother, because I say we should not do what is wrong, whoever tells us to?”