Osbert laughed, and Anania was more vexed than ever.

“You’re a pair!” said he.

“Now, look you here! I’ll have an answer, if I stand here while Christmas; and you sha’n’t have another bite till you’ve given it. Did you go a-courting?”

As Anania had laid violent hands on the pie, which she held out of his grasp, and as Stephen had no desire to get into a genuine quarrel with her, he was obliged to make some reply.

“Will you give me back the pie, if I tell you?”

“Yes, I will.”

“Then, I’d no such notion in my head. Let’s have the pie.”

“When?” Anania still withheld the pie.

“When what?”

“When hadn’t you such a notion? when you set forth, or when you came back?”