Then she waits till the sentence is finished and lifts the book with the left hand instead of the right.

The Registrar's clerk has to go across to the box and shout an explanation into her ear.

'Tell the truth,' says the old lady, with alacrity; 'why, that's what I be come for.' The Judge asks her what it is she claims, and she replies that that man, the Registrar's clerk, has got it all written down in his book.

She then turns to the Defendant's wife, who stands in the box opposite, and shouts to her, 'You knows you ain't paid it.' It is in vain that the Judge endeavours to question her, in vain that the High Bailiff tries to calm her, in vain that the clerk lays his hand on her arm--she is bent on telling the Defendant a bit of her mind.

The Court is perforce compelled to wait till it is over, when the Judge, seeing that talking is of no avail, goes at once to the root of the matter and asks to see her books.