"Stop!" cried Todd.
She returned at once.
"You don't look like a lad in want of a situation. Your clothes are good—your whole appearance is that of a young gentleman. What do you mean by coming here to ask to be an errand boy in a barber's shop? I don't understand it. You had different expectations."
"Yes, sir. But Mrs. Green—"
"Mrs. who?"
"Green, sir, my mother-in-law, don't use me well, and I would rather go to sea, or seek my living in any way, than go back again to her; and if I were to come into your service, all I would ask would be, that you did not let her know where I was."
"Humph! Your mother-in-law, you say?"
"Yes, sir. I have been far happier since I ran away from her, than I have been for a long time past."
"Ah, you ran away? Where lives she?"
"At Oxford. I came to London in the waggon, and at every step the lazy horses took, I felt a degree of pleasure that I was placing a greater distance between me and oppression."