I do not intend to buy at all unless I can be allowed to bid for myself." When Rosa, blushing and amazed at her own boldness, uttered these words, she little foresaw their effect.

She had touched a popular sore.
"You are quite right, madam," said a respectable tradesman opposite her.
"What business have these dirty fellows, without a shilling in their pockets, to go and force themselves on a lady against her will ?" "It has been complained of in the papers again and again," said another.
"What! mayn't we live as well as you ?" retorted a broker.
"Yes, but not to force yourself on a lady.

Why, she'd give you in charge of the police if you tried it on outside." Then there was a downright clamor of discussion and chaff.
Presently up rises very slowly a countryman so colossal, that it seemed as if he would never have done getting up, and gives his experiences.

He informed the company, in a broad Yorkshire dialect, that he did a bit in furniture, and at first starting these brokers buzzed about him like flies, and pestered him.

"Aah damned 'em pretty hard," said he, "but they didn't heed any.