Tie this ragged old thing round them with a bit of
string, and I shall carry them home quite comfortably."
The man seemed disposed to insist on the stout paper being
produced; but the woman, as if she was glad of an opportunity of
spiting him, snatched the candles away, and tied them up in a
moment in the torn old cravat. I was afraid he would have struck
her before my face, he seemed in such a fury; but, fortunately,
another customer came in, and obliged him to put his hands to
peaceable and proper use.?
"Quite a bundle of all-sorts on the opposite counter there," I
said to the woman, as I paid her for the candles.
"Yes, and all hoarded up for sale by a poor creature with a lazy
brute of a husband, who lets his wife do all the work while he
spends all the money," answered the woman, with a malicious look
at the man by her side.
"He can't surely have much money to spend, if his wife has no
better work to do than picking up rags," said I.
"It isn't her fault if she hasn't got no better," says the woman,
rather angrily. "She's ready to turn her hand to anything.
Charing, washing, laying-out, keeping empty houses--nothing comes
amiss to her. She's my half-sister, and I think I ought to know."
"Did you say she went out charing?" I asked, making believe as if
I knew of somebody who might employ her.
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