. Bob Sawyer could return any answer, the girl suddenly
disappeared with a jerk, as if somebody had given her a violent pull
behind; this mysterious exit was no sooner accomplished, than there
was another tap at the door--a smart, pointed tap, which seemed to say,
'Here I am, and in I'm coming.'

Mr. Bob Sawyer glanced at his friend with a look of abject apprehension,
and once more cried, 'Come in.'

The permission was not at all necessary, for, before Mr. Bob Sawyer had
uttered the words, a little, fierce woman bounced into the room, all in
a tremble with passion, and pale with rage.

'Now, Mr. Sawyer,' said the little, fierce woman, trying to appear very
calm, 'if you'll have the kindness to settle that little bill of mine
I'll thank you, because I've got my rent to pay this afternoon, and my
landlord's a-waiting below now.' Here the little woman rubbed her hands,
and looked steadily over Mr. Bob Sawyer's head, at the wall behind him.

'I am very sorry to put you to any inconvenience, Mrs. Raddle,' said Bob
Sawyer deferentially, 'but--'

'Oh, it isn't any inconvenience,' replied the little woman, with a
shrill titter. 'I didn't want it particular before to-day; leastways, as
it has to go to my landlord directly, it was as well for you to keep it
as me. You promised me this afternoon, Mr. Sawyer, and every gentleman
as has ever lived here, has kept his word, Sir, as of course anybody as
calls himself a gentleman does.' Mrs. Raddle tossed her head, bit her
lips, rubbed her hands harder, and looked at the wall more steadily
than ever. It was plain to see, as Mr. Bob Sawyer remarked in a style
of Eastern allegory on a subsequent occasion, that she was 'getting the
steam up.'

'I am very sorry, Mrs. Raddle,' said Bob Sawyer, with all imaginable
humility, 'but the fact is, that I have been disappointed in the City
to-day.'--Extraordinary place that City. An astonishing number of men
always ARE getting disappointed there.

'Well, Mr. Sawyer,' said Mrs. Raddle, planting herself firmly on a
purple cauliflower in the Kidderminster carpet, 'and what's that to me,
Sir?'

'I--I--have no doubt, Mrs. Raddle,' said Bob Sawyer, blinking this last
question, 'that before the middle of next week we shall be able to set
ourselves quite square, and go on, on a better system, afterwards.'

This was all Mrs. Raddle wanted. She had bustled up to the apartment of
the unlucky Bob Sawyer, so bent upon going into a passion, that, in all