harder with his tongue; but it was coming now, and
she nerved herself for the blow. But Jonah's hand dropped helplessly.

"You low, dirty bitch," he said. "If a man said that to me, I'd
strangle him. I took yer out of the factory, I married yer, an' worked
day an' night ter git on in the world, an' that's yer thanks. Pity I
didn't leave yer in the gutter w'ere yer belonged. I wonder who yer
take after? Not after yer mother. She is clean an' wholesome. Any
other woman would take an interest in my business, an' be a help to a
man; but you're like a millstone round my neck. I thought I'd done
with Cardigan Street, an' the silly loafers I grew up with, but s'elp
me Gawd, when I married you I married Cardigan Street. I could put up
with yer want of brains--you don't want much brains ter git through
this world--but it's yer nasty, sulky temper, an' yer bone idleness. I
suppose yer git them from yer lovely father. The 'ardest work 'e ever
did was to drink beer. It's a wonder yer don't take after 'im in that.
I suppose I've got something to be thankful for."

"Yes, I suppose yer'd like me ter drink meself ter death, so as yer
could marry again. But yer needn't fear I'll last yous out," cried
Ada, recovering her tongue now that she was no longer in fear of a blow.

"Ah well, yer can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear they say,"
said Jonah. There was an intense weariness in his voice as he turned
his back on Ada.

"No more than yer can make a man out of a monkey on a stick," muttered
Ada to herself as she got out of bed.

Ada got the breakfast and went about the house in sullen silence.
Jonah was used to this. For days together after a quarrel she would
sulk without speaking, proud of her stubborn temper that forced others
to give in first. And they would sit down to meals and pass one
another in the rooms, watching each other's movements to avoid the
necessity for speaking. The day had begun badly for Ada, and her anger
increased as she brooded over her wrongs. Heavy and sullen by nature,
her wrath came to a head hours after the provocation, burning with a
steady heat when others were cooling down.

But as she was pegging out some towels in the yard she heard a discreet
cough on the other side of the fence. Ada recognized the signal. It
was her neighbour, the woman with the hairy lip, housekeeper to Aaron
the Jew. It had taken Ada weeks to discover Mrs Herring's physical
defect, which she humoured