“I thank you, Hostess, but I must be going home.”

“Good-night, then, Bessy, and don’t sing funeral dirges over your own coffin afore it comes from the undertaker. What, Doll, hast really got here? I scarce looked to see thee afore morning. Good-night, maids.”

And Mrs Wade bustled away.


Note 1. At this time they used the word meat in the sense of food of any kind—not butchers meat only.


Chapter Thirteen.

A Dark Night’s Errand.

“Must you be gone, Bessy?” said Dorothy Denny, sitting down on the side of her bed with a weary air. “Eh, I’m proper tired! Thought this day ’d never come to an end, I did. Couldn’t you tarry a bit longer?”