precious pals were about."

Mrs. Higgs drew her chair nearer to the deal table, and leaning on it
with her head resting in her hands, stared at him malignantly.

"My precious pals! My precious pals!" muttered she to herself in an
angry tone. "That's the way he talks to me! To me, he owes so much to!
Ah! Ah! Ah!"

These three last ejaculations were uttered with so much suppressed
passion, and there gleamed in her dull eyes such a dull look of stupid
ferocity, that Dudley withdrew his attention from the cupboard and walls
and transferred it wholly to her. After a pause, during which the two
seemed to measure each other with cautious eyes, he said, abruptly:

"Do you know why I have come here to-night?"

"To show me a little gratitude at last, perhaps," suggested Mrs. Higgs,
sharply. "To do your duty--yes, it's no more than your duty, you know,
to do what I tell you--and to help yourself in helping me. That's true,
isn't it?"

Dudley stared at her in silence for a few moments before he answered:

"Duty is an odd word to use--a very odd word. But we won't waste time
discussing that. You sent a message to me by a girl this evening?"

Mrs. Higgs nodded.

"You want me to defend one of the rascals who make this place their