‘I never saw you so pugnacious before, mother.’
‘Oh,’ she would reply promptly, ‘you canna expect me to be sharp in the uptake when I am no’ a member of a club.’
‘But the difficulty is in becoming a member. They are very particular about whom they elect, and I daresay I shall not get in.’
‘Well, I’m but a poor crittur (not being member of a club), but I think I can tell you to make your mind easy on that head. You’ll get in, I’se uphaud—and your thirty pounds will get in, too.’
‘If I get in it will be because the editor is supporting me.’
‘It’s the first ill thing I ever heard of him.’
‘You don’t think he is to get any of the thirty pounds, do you?’
‘’Deed if I did I should be better pleased, for he has been a good friend to us, but what maddens me is that every penny of it should go to those bare-faced scoundrels.’
‘What bare-faced scoundrels?’
‘Them that have the club.’