"Same as before," replied the doctor. "She says the girl's a hussy. She says she always knew it. She says you are pig-headed and obstinate, and she will be mistress in her own house, and why don't you put up a notice saying, 'Beds for lying-in kept here,' and be done with it. And if the girl had done her duty and attended to business and kept the glasses washed instead of for ever gossiping with the Jew boys on the saloon side, this thing would never have happened. And if girls are to be petted and pampered for being bad, what is the use of having marriage lines and living decent? She also intimates that your attitude in this matter is not becoming to a married man. If she were a jealous woman she might begin to wonder if——"
Mr. Huggins smiled broadly. "My good lady, as the sayin' goes," quoth he, "would talk the 'ind leg off a donkey. But we understand each other, 'er and me, and ... we've buried three. I bin in this business for forty year, man and boy. I know life. We understand each other, Doctor. What? 'Ave another.
"'Live and let live' is my motter. She bin with us three years, that silly kid. She could go further with the eighteen gallons nor any young woman as ever served in my bar. Where's she to go if my wife as 'er way? And the kid? We buried three ourselves, which is a thing what you might think would soften a woman's 'eart. But it don't, not in circs. like this. These good women they got no 'eart—not when it comes to bad women. It's a sort of—a sort of——"
"Trade unionism," suggested Dr. Brink. And 'Ost 'Uggins, who at first looked solemn and inquiring, gradually smiled his assent to Dr. Brink's suggestion.
"I s'pose poor Phoebe is a blackleg," he mused. "But my motter is 'Live and let live.' She was wonderful coaxing with the disorderlies. What else my missus say to you?"
"She said you were looking for trouble."
"What else?"
"She said, 'Minx!' 'Damned devil!' 'Disgraceful slut!'"
"Anythink else?"
"She said that either the hussy or she would leave this house."