And to show it they go telling everybody that I ain't respectable, that I'm a disgrace to a decent 'ouse.

D'you think I'll stand it ?" Of a sudden she changed from irony to fierceness.

"What do you mean by it, Mrs.Bubb?
Did you never hear of people being prosecuted for taking away people's characters?
Just you mind what you're about, Mrs.Bubb.I give you fair warning, and that's all I have to say to you." Having relieved her feelings with these and a few more verbal missiles, Polly ran up the kitchen steps.

In the passage the two men were still conversing; at sight of Polly they stopped with an abruptness which did not escape her observation.

No doubt, she said to herself, they had been talking about her.