'A very particular friend of mine, Mrs.Allchops; and of Norah's too, I can assure you,' said Mrs.Davis.
'Ah, Mr.Tudor, and how be you?
A sight of you is good for sore eyes,' said she of the sausages, rising with some difficulty from her chair, and grasping Charley's hand with all the pleasant cordiality of old friendship.
'The gen'leman seems to be a little too late for the fair,' said a severe lodging-house keeper from Cecil Street.
'Them as wills not, when they may, When they wills they shall have nay,' said a sarcastic rival barmaid from a neighbouring public, to whom all Norah's wrongs and all Mr.Tudor's false promises were fully known.
Charley was not the fellow to allow himself to be put down, even by feminine raillery; so he plucked up his spirit, sad as he was at heart, and replied to them all _en masse_.
'Well, ladies, what's in the wind now?
You seem to be very cosy here, all of you; suppose you allow me to join you.' 'With a 'eart and a 'alf,' said Mrs.Allchops, squeezing her corpulence up to the end of the horsehair sofa, so as to make room for him between herself and the poetic barmaid.

'I'd sooner have a gentleman next to me nor a lady hany day of the week; so come and sit down, my birdie.' But Charley, as he was about to accept the invitation of his friend Mrs.Allchops, caught Mrs.Davis's eye, and followed her out of the room into the passage.

'Step up to the landing, Mr.
Tudor,' said she; and Charley stepped up.

'Come in here, Mr.
Tudor--you won't mind my bedroom for once.' And Charley followed her in, not minding her bedroom.
'Of course you know what has happened, Mr.Tudor ?' said she.
'Devil a bit,' said Charley.
'Laws, now--don't you indeed?
Well, that is odd.' 'How the deuce should I know?
Where's Norah ?' 'Why--she's at Gravesend.' 'At Gravesend--you don't mean to say she's----' 'I just do then; she's just gone and got herself spliced to Peppermint this morning.

They had the banns said these last three Sundays; and this morning they was at St.Martin's at eight o'clock, and has been here junketing ever since, and now they're away to Gravesend.' 'Gravesend!' said Charley, struck by the suddenness of his rescue, as the gambler would have been had some stranger seized the razor at the moment when it was lifted to his throat.
'Yes, Gravesend,' said Mrs.Davis; 'and they'll come up home to his own house by the first boat to-morrow.' 'So Norah's married!' said Charley, with a slight access of sentimental softness in his voice.
'She's been and done it now, Mr.Tudor, and no mistake; and it's better so, ain't it?
Why, Lord love you, she'd never have done for you, you know; and she's the very article for such a man as Peppermint.' There was something good-natured in this, and so Charley felt it.
As long as Mrs.Davis could do anything to assist her cousin's views, by endeavouring to seduce or persuade her favourite lover into a marriage, she left no stone unturned, working on her cousin's behalf.