Because of the Lockwoods Part II

Mr. Lockwood grudgingly agrees to help Mrs. Hunter with practical and legal advice... but when he finds on looking into the family’s papers that Mr. Hunter had managed to buy a paddock, he is tempted to commit a fraudulent act...He gives way to the temptation. He had loaned Mr Hunter the £300 to buy a paddock for his children... Mr Hunter repaid it soon afterwards. He realizes that Mrs. Hunter is not aware of this – that the money was repaid... and he offers to take the paddock as part repayment for the legal work he is kindly doing. Mrs. Hunter is in shock and she's embarrassed that her husband had been in debt, agrees to this. Lockwood salves his conscience by telling himself that he will be a good friend to Mrs Hunter and do a lot of work for her and her 3 children... but in practice he does little. He does not make any effort to make her life easier. She has to sell their bigger house, and move to a poorer part of the town and live on a small income. Mrs Hunter is shy and sensitive and never manages to fit in with her new neighbours, and she has lost touch with all her middle class friends except for Mrs Lockwood. The children have school friends but they also are friendly with the Lockwoods. However all 3 of them (Molly, Martin and Thea) are hurt by the patronising way that the Lockwood children treat them. The youngest girl, Claire is pleasant but the twin daughters, Bea and Muriel very much resemble their domineering father. Thea, the youngest Hunter child, is the cleverest. She does well at school, and is envious of the Lockwoods who are not that clever but have more books, go to a boarding school and have much more opportunities than she has. She is eager to have a good education and find a good job. Her older sister Molly becomes a nursery governess in her teens because the family need to add to their income. Molly has no real skills and no other job opportunities. Martin leaves school and goes into a bank, because he knows he has no hope of training at anything that will be a career. But Thea is more ambitious and more resentful of the Lockwoods.