I've took my plait to Jimmy Gedge--'im an' 'is son, fust shop on yer right hand when yer git into town--twenty-five year, summer and winter--me an' three other women, as give me a penny a journey for takin' theirs.

If I wor to go messin' about wi' Jimmy Gedge, Lor' bless yer, I should 'ear ov it--oh! I shoulden sleep o' nights for thinkin' o' how Jimmy ud serve me out when I wor least egspectin' ov it.

He's a queer un.

No, miss, thank yer kindly; but I think I'll bide." Marcella, amazed, began to argue a little, to expound the many attractions of the new scheme.

Greatly to her annoyance, Wharton came forward to her help, guaranteeing the solvency and permanence of her new partnership in glib and pleasant phrase, wherein her angry fancy suspected at once the note of irony.