. Cheeseman."

Polly went down into the kitchen, where Mrs. Cheeseman, a stout woman
of slatternly appearance, was sitting with her legs crossed and a plate
of shrimps in her lap.

"Have a srimp, Polly?" began Mrs. Bubb, anxious to dismiss the memory
of recent discord.

"Thank you, Mrs. Bubb, if I have a fancy for srimps I can afford to buy
them for myself."

"Well, you _are_ nasty! Ain't she real obstropolous, Mrs. Cheeseman? I
never knew a nastier-tempered girl in all my life, that I never did.
There's actially no living with her."

"Now set down, Polly," urged the stout woman in an unctuous voice. "Set
down, do, an' tike things easy. You'll worrit your sweet self to death
before you're many years older if you go on like this."

"I'm much obliged to you, Mrs. Cheeseman," answered Polly, holding
herself very stiff; "but I didn't come here to set down, nor to talk
neither. But I'm glad you're here, because you'll be a witness to what
I say. I've come to give Mrs. Bubb a week's notice. She's often enough
told me that she wants to keep her house respectable, and I'm sure
she'll be glad to get rid of people as don't suit her. It's the first
time I was ever told that I disgraced a 'ouse, and I hope it'll be the
last time too. When I pay my rent to-morrow morning you'll please to
understand, Mrs. Bubb, that I've given a week's notice. I may be a
disgrace, but I dare say there's people as won't be ashamed to let me a
room. And that's what I came to say, and now I've said it, and Mrs.
Cheeseman is a witness."

This was spoken so rapidly that it left Polly breathless and with a
very high colour. The elder women looked at each other, and Mrs.
Cheeseman, with a shrimp in her mouth, resumed the attempt at
pacification.

"Now, see 'ere, Polly. You're a young gyell, my dear, and a 'andsome
gyell, as we all know, and you've only one fault, which there ain't no
need to mention it. And we're all fond of you, Polly, that's the fact.
Ain't we all fond of her, Mrs. Bubb?"

"Oh, yes, she's very fond of me!" exclaimed the girl. "And so is my
Aunt Louisa. And to show it they go telling everybody that I ain't
respectable, that I'm a disgrace to a decent 'ouse. D'you think I'll
stand it?" Of a sudden she changed from irony to fierceness. "What do
you mean by it, Mrs. Bubb? Did you never hear of people being
prosecuted for taking away people's characters? Just you mind what
you're about, Mrs. Bubb. I give you fair warning, and that'