“I So then I decided it was time to tell the old villain just what I thought of his grinding men down to the last penny and insulting every decent girl that ever worked for him.  He got as black in the face as if he was smoking already on the fiery furnace that’s waiting for him below, please God, and called the shrimp of an office boy to throw me out.  ‘Leave the place, you disgraceful creature, or I’ll send for the police,’ says he.  But I left when I got ready to leave and just what I said to him, the dirty wretch, I’ll tell to you, Mrs. Phillips, some time when she”—­nodding at Nellie—­“isn’t about.  She’s getting so like a blessed saint that one feels as if one’s in church when she’s about, bless her heart!”

“You’re getting very particular all at once, Mrs. Macanany,” observed Nellie.

“It’s a wonder he didn’t send for a policeman,” commented Mrs. Phillips.

“Send for a policeman!  And pretty he’d look with the holy bible in his hand repeating what I said to him, wouldn’t he now?” enquired Mrs. Macanany, once more placing her great arms on her hips and glaring with her watery eyes at her audience.

“Did you hear that Mrs. Hobbs had a son this morning?” questioned Mrs. Phillips, suddenly recollecting that she also might have an item of news.

“What!  Mrs. Hobbs, so soon!  How would I be hearing when I just came through the back, and Tom only just gone out to wear his feet off, looking for work?  A boy again!  The Lord preserve us all!  It’s the devil’s own luck the dear creature has, isn’t it now?  Why didn’t you tell me before, and me here gossiping when the dear woman will be expecting me round to see her and the dear baby and wondering what I’ve got against her for not coming?  I must be off, now, and tidy myself a bit and go and cheer the poor creature up for I know very well how one wants cheering at such times.  Was it a hard time she had with it?  And who is it like the little angel that came straight from heaven this blessed day?  The dear woman!  I must be off, so I’ll say good-day to you, Mrs. Phillips, and may the sun shine on you and your sweetheart, Nellie, even if he does take you away from us all, and may you have a houseful of babies with faces as sweet as your own and never miss a neighbour to cheer you a bit when the trouble’s on you.  The Lord be with us all!”

Nellie laughed as the rough-voiced, kind-hearted woman took herself off, to cross the broken dividing wall to the row of houses that backed closely on the open kitchen door.  Then she shrugged her shoulders.

“It’s always the way,” she remarked, as she turned away to the other door that led along a little, narrow passage to the street.  “What’s going to become of the innocent little baby?  Nobody thinks of that.”