"La! but didn't I always say so?" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, who had always said everything.
"I couldn't have believed it, that I couldn't!" emphatically observed
Mrs. Gray.
"La, bless you, Mrs. Gray! I could," sneered the neighbour, who was sharp, thin, and irritable.
Even Jane had her word:
"I never liked her," she said, giving her thread a pull.
"Who is she?" languidly asked Mary, letting her work fall on her knees.
"Never you mind, Miss," tartly replied Jane. "Just stitch on, will you?"
Mrs. Brown was again down on the unlucky absent one.
"Serve her right," she said, benevolently. "Serve her right—the set up thing! Oh! there's Rachel. Lawk, Rachel! what a pity you ain't been here! You never heard such a story as has come out about that little staymaker, Humpy, as I call her. Why, she's been a making love to—la! but I can't help laughing, when I think of it; and it's all true, every word of it; aint it, Mrs. Smith?"
Mrs. Smith loftily acquiesced.