n her tea-cup and
brushing the crumbs out of her lap, preparatory to making a solemn
declaration. 'If he is! He is the greatest tyrant that every lived, she
daren't call her soul her own, he makes her tremble with a word and
even with a look, he frightens her to death, and she hasn't the spirit
to give him a word back, no, not a single word.'

Notwithstanding that the fact had been notorious beforehand to all the
tea-drinkers, and had been discussed and expatiated on at every
tea-drinking in the neighbourhood for the last twelve months, this
official communication was no sooner made than they all began to talk
at once and to vie with each other in vehemence and volubility. Mrs
George remarked that people would talk, that people had often said this
to her before, that Mrs Simmons then and there present had told her so
twenty times, that she had always said, 'No, Henrietta Simmons, unless
I see it with my own eyes and hear it with my own ears, I never will
believe it.' Mrs Simmons corroborated this testimony and added strong
evidence of her own. The lady from the Minories recounted a successful
course of treatment under which she had placed her own husband, who,
from manifesting one month after marriage unequivocal symptoms of the
tiger, had by this means become subdued into a perfect lamb. Another
lady recounted her own personal struggle and final triumph, in the
course whereof she had found it necessary to call in her mother and two
aunts, and to weep incessantly night and day for six weeks. A third,
who in the general confusion could secure no other listener, fastened
herself upon a young woman still unmarried who happened to be amongst
them, and conjured her, as she valued her own peace of mind and
happiness to profit by this solemn occasion, to take example from the
weakness of Mrs Quilp, and from that time forth to direct her whole
thoughts to taming and subduing the rebellious spirit of man. The noise
was at its height, and half the company had elevated their voices into
a perfect shriek in order to drown the voices of the other half, when
Mrs Jiniwin was seen to change colour and shake her forefinger
stealthily, as if exhorting them to silence. Then, and not until then,
Daniel Quilp himself, the cause and occasion of all this clamour, was
observed to be in the room, looking on and listening with profound
attention.

'Go on, ladies, go on,' said Daniel. 'Mrs Quilp, pray ask the ladies to
stop to supper, and have