"That's right, Ma'am. Now you've got him safe and sound once more, you couldn't do better, Ma'am. And for Mr. Truepenny"—

Well, his very name set me in a flame. "Mr. Truepenny! He never crosses my threshold! A very pretty friend indeed, to come and lure a man—a newly-married man"—

"Not married a month yet, quite, Ma'am," said Josephine, "which makes it hard."—

"And take him out, I may say, in cold blood"—

"Which makes it ten times wickeder," said Josephine.

"And butcher him like a lamb," said I.

"Exactly like a lamb, Ma'am," cried the girl. "Only there is this difference, Ma'am: you know master isn't a bit hurt."

"That has nothing to do with it. He might have been killed, and what would Mr. Truepenny have cared? No! I might have been left a wretched widow!"

"And much Mr. Truepenny would have helped you then, Ma'am," said the good girl.

"No, he never crosses the Flitch—never: and that I shall tell your master. The foolish, dear fellow! How I will scold him."