"Take a seat, my good woman," he said.
"What can I do for you ?" "Please, Mr.Girdlestone, I'm Mrs.Hudson," she answered, seating herself in a timid way upon the extreme edge of a chair.

She was weary and footsore, for she had carried the baby up from Stepney that morning.
"Hudson--Hudson--can't remember the name," said Girdlestone, shaking his head reflectively.
"Jim Hudson as was, sir, he was my husband, the bo'sun for many a year o' your ship the _Black Eagle_.

He went out to try and earn a bit for me and the child, sir, but he's dead o' fever, poor dear, and lying in Bonny river, wi' a cannon ball at his feet, as the carpenter himself told me who sewed him up, and I wish I was dead and with him, so I do." She began sobbing in her shawl and moaning, while the child, suddenly awakened by the sound, rubbed its eyes with its wrinkled mottled hands, and then proceeded to take stock of Mr.Girdlestone and his office with the critical philosophy of infancy.
"Calm yourself, my good woman, calm yourself," said the senior partner.
He perceived that the evil prophesied by his son had come upon him, and he made a mental note of this fresh instance of Ezra's powers of foresight.
"It was hard, so it was," said Mrs.Hudson, drying her eyes, but still giving vent to an occasional tempestuous sob.

"I heard as the _Black Eagle_ was comin' up the river, so I spent all I had in my pocket in makin' Jim a nice little supper--ham an' eggs, which was always his favourite, an' a pint o' bitter, an' a quartern o' whiskey that he could take hot after, bein' naturally o' a cold turn, and him comin' from a warm country, too.

Then out I goes, and down the river, until I sees the _Black Eagle_ a-comin' up wi' a tug in front of her.