chunk: In Book III ("Kippses"), the attempt to find a suitable house for his new status precipitates Kipps back into a struggle with the "complex and difficult" English social system. Kipps and Ann quarrel. Then they learn that Helen's brother, a solicitor, has lost most of their fortune through speculation. This leads to a happier situation, however, when Kipps opens a branch of the Associated Booksellers' Trading Union (Limited) in Hythe, and they have a son. The success of Chitterlow's play, in which Kipps had invested ÂŁ2,000, restores their fortune, but they are content to remain, as at the beginning, shopkeepers in a small coastal town.