"Service in a lodging-'ouse! Not me. You know what that is. I'm surprised that you'd ask me."
"Well, what are yer thinking of doing?"
"I was thinking of going on in the pantomime as one of the hextra ladies, if they'll 'ave me."
"Oh, Jenny, you won't do that, will you? A theatre is only sinfulness, as we 'ave always knowed."
"You know that I don't 'old with all them preachy-preachy brethren says about the theatre."
"I can't argue—I 'aven't the strength, and it interferes with the milk." And then, as if prompted by some association of ideas, Esther said, "I hope, Jenny, that you'll take example by me and will do nothing foolish; you'll always be a good girl."
"Yes, if I gets the chance."
"I'm sorry to 'ear you speak like that, and poor mother only just dead."
The words that rose to Jenny's lips were: "A nice one you are, with a baby at your breast, to come a-lecturing me," but, fearing Esther's temper, she checked the dangerous words and said instead—
"I didn't mean that I was a-going on the streets right away this very evening, only that a girl left alone in London without anyone to look to may go wrong in spite of herself, as it were."