"True enough, I'm afraid," said Dunn.
"Mrs. Mason was telling me about the Gardiners next door," resumed Susan. "The eldest girl is in one of the factories; and her parents daren't ever say one word of blame to her for anything, lest she should go straight off and board with somebody else. That's a nice state of things, isn't it? And the Handcocks on our other side,—Mrs. Handcock is out all day long at the factory, and her husband and children may fare as they can,—she don't care."
"I say, Sue,—seems to me Mrs. Mason is something of a gossip," remonstrated Dunn.
Susan blushed. "Yes; only you see we've got to find out a little about the neighbours, Richard, or we shall get dragged in to know a lot of people that we hadn't ought to know."
"I don't see that. Nobody can drag us into acquaintances against our will," said Dunn. "We had best be careful, that's all, and not get intimate with anybody in a hurry."
"What's all that noise about?" Susan exclaimed.
The noise swelled; and both Dunn and his wife left the kitchen, going to the front door.
People had done the same in neighbouring cottages. "What can be the matter?" one and another was asking.
Shouts and yells seemed to sweep past near at hand, and people could be seen running fast along a cross-road at the end. None came past "Woodbine Cottage."
"I wish Nancy and Dick were at home," Susan said uneasily; "I don't like this."