So! Even the provincials knew his humiliation. The eggwoman, next, would be offering him sympathy!

They were a clanny bunch who favored each other for jobs[…]

The clerk of works seldom intends that to be the case and, even if that was the case, those intentions would be irrelevant. Merely complying with a clerk of work's snagging list can never take the place of compliance with the contract.

Grave-dancers, for sure, all of them. But no diggers.