Consternation reigned.
We asked:
"What's happening?"
"They are there!" was the reply.
"There!" One would have thought they meant a hundred yards away! The inhabitants were turning out. I can see a well-dressed old woman, in mourning, on the pavement in front of her house, loading a waggon—her maid was helping her—with a confused medley of furniture, ornaments, clothes.
"You needn't be in such a bloomin' hurry, Mother," shouted Judsi; "can't you see we're here!"
"You won't stop them," she retorted.
"Oh, steady on!"
She raised her voice till it became a shriek:
"You won't stop them, I tell you! It's just like it was in 1870!"