Widdershins by Oliver [pseud.] Onions
page 91 of 299 (30%)
page 91 of 299 (30%)
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were in the houses, behind closed doors.
A long-nosed man had a little group about him, and he was telling some story over and over again; and another man, little and fat and wide-eyed, sought to capture the long-nosed man's audience with some relation in which a key figured. "... and it was revealed to me that there'd been something that very afternoon," the long-nosed man was saying. "I was standing there, where Constable Saunders is--or rather, I was passing about my business, when they came out. There was no deceiving me, oh, no deceiving _me! I_ saw her face...." "What was it like, Mr. Barrett?" a man asked. "It was like hers whom our Lord said to, 'Woman, doth any man accuse thee?'--white as paper, and no mistake! Don't tell _me_!... And so I walks straight across to Mrs. Barrett, and 'Jane,' I says, 'this must stop, and stop at once; we are commanded to avoid evil,' I says, 'and it must come to an end now; let him get help elsewhere.' "And she says to me, 'John,' she says, 'it's four-and-sixpence a week'--them was her words. "'Jane,' I says, 'if it was forty-six thousand pounds it should stop'... and from that day to this she hasn't set foot inside that gate." There was a short silence: then, "Did Mrs. Barrett ever..._ see_ anythink, like?" somebody vaguely |
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