O'S
IGNORANCE ABOUT HERS. HOW SHE DID NOT GIVE THE _STAR_ TO MRS. BURR
INTACT

The unwelcome visitor who, in the phrase of Uncle Mo, had made Sapps
Court stink--a thing outside the experience of its inhabitants--bade
fair to be forgotten altogether. Michael, the only connecting link
between the two, had all memory of the Hammersmith arrest quite knocked
out of his head a few days later by a greater incident--his father
having been arrested and fined for an assault on a competitor in
business, with an empty sack. It was entirely owing to the quality of
the beer at the King's Arms that Mr. Rackstraw lost his temper.

But Daverill's corruption of the Court's pure air was not destined to
oblivion. It was revived by the merest accident; the merest, that is, up
to that date. There have been many merer ones since, unless the phrase
has been incorrectly used in recent literature.

One day in July, when Uncle Moses was enjoying his afternoon pipe with
his old friend Affability Bob, or Jerry Alibone, and reading one of the
new penny papers--it was the one called the _Morning Star_, now no
more--he let his spectacles fall when polishing them; and, rashly
searching for them, broke both glasses past all redemption. He was much
annoyed, seeing that he was in the middle of a sensational account of
the escape of a prisoner from Coldbath Fields house of detention; a gaol
commonly known the "The Jug." It was a daring business, and Uncle Mo had
just been at the full of his enjoyment of it when the accident happened.

"Have you never another pair, Mo?" said Mr. Alibone. And Uncle Mo called
out to Aunt M'riar:--"M'riar!--just take a look round and see for them
old glasses upstairs. I've stood down on mine, and as good as spiled
'em. Look alive!" For, you see, he was all on end to know how this
prisoner, who had been put in irons for violence, and somehow got free
and overpowered a gaoler who came alone into his cell, had contrived his
final escape from the prison.

Mr. Alibone was always ready to deserve his name of Affability Bob.
"Give me hold of the paper, Mo," said he. "Where was you?... Oh
yes--here we are!... 'almost unparalleled audacity.' ... I'll go on
there." For Uncle Mo had read some aloud, and Mr. Alibone he wanted to
know too, to say the truth. And he really was a lot better scollard than
Mo--when it came to readin' out loud--and tackled "unparalleled" as if
it was just nothing at all; it being the word that b