He soon came to a nest of low and dingy buildings, at the entrance to which, in half-effaced characters, was written "Thames Court." Halting at the most conspicuous of these buildings, an inn or alehouse, through the half-closed windows of which blazed out in ruddy comfort the beams of the hospitable hearth, he knocked hastily at the door.

He was admitted by a lady of a certain age, and endowed with a comely rotundity of face and person.
"Hast got it, Dummie ?" said she, quickly, as she closed the door on the guest.
"Noa, noa! not exactly; but I thinks as 'ow--" "Pish, you fool!" cried the woman, interrupting him peevishly.

"Vy, it is no use desaving me.

You knows you has only stepped from my boosing-ken to another, and you has not been arter the book at all.

So there's the poor cretur a raving and a dying, and you--" "Let I speak!" interrupted Dummie in his turn.