Weren't there, Sam ?" "Yes, sir," said Mr.Wilks, in a voice which he strove hard to make distinct; "especially 'ers." "You--you never told me you were married," said Mrs.Silk, breathlessly.
"I never said I wasn't," retorted the culprit, defiantly.

"If people liked to think I was a single man, I don't care; it's got nothing to do with them.

Besides, she lives at Stepney, and I don't 'ear from 'er once in six months; she don't interfere with me and I don't interfere with her." Mrs.Silk got up from her chair and stood confronting him with her hand grasping the back of it.

Her cold eyes gleamed and her face worked with spite as she tried in vain to catch his eye.

Of Mr.Nugent and his ingenuous surprise at her behaviour she took no notice at all.
"You're a deceiver," she gasped; "you've been behaving like a single man and everybody thought you was a single man." [Illustration: "'You're a deceiver,' she gasped."] "I hope you haven't been paying attentions to anybody, Sam," said Mr.
Nugent in a shocked voice.
"A-ah," said Mrs.Silk, shivering with anger.