At four o'clock every afternoon she laid aside her sober garments of the working day and came forth in an evening costume which was the admiration and envy of Paradise Street.
Popular from a certain wordy good-humour which she always had at command, she derived from this evening garb a social superiority which friends and neighbours, whether they would or no were constrained to recognise.

She was deemed a well-to-do woman, and as such--Paradise Street held it axiomatic--might reasonably adorn herself for the respect of those to whom she sold miscellaneous pennyworths.

She did not depend upon the business.

Her husband, as we already know, was a foreman at Egremont & Pollard's oilcloth manufactory; they were known to have money laid by.

You saw in her face that life had been smooth with her from the beginning.