"And what business have you to come at seven and a quarter? Half-past six
is your time; and, if you can't keep it, your missis shall get those that
can."

"Why can't my missis let me stop at night and clear up the work?"
returned the girl. "She sends me away at six o'clock, as soon as I've
washed the tea-things, and oftentimes earlier than that. It stands to
reason I can't get through the work of a morning."

"You could do so quite well if you came to time," said the clerk, turning
away to his walnut-tree. "Why don't you?"

"I overslept myself this morning. Father never called me afore he went
out. No doubt he had a drop too much last night."

She went flying up the gravel-path as she spoke. Her father was the man
Jones whom you saw at the railway station; her step-mother (for her own
mother was dead) was Mrs. Gum's cousin.

She was a sort of stray sheep, this girl, in the eyes of Calne, not
belonging very much to any one; her father habitually neglected her, her
step-mother had twice turned her out of doors. Some three or four months
ago, when Mrs. Gum was changing her servant, she had consented to try
this girl. Jabez Gum knew nothing of the arrangement until it was
concluded, and disapproved of it. Altogether, it did not work
satisfactorily: Miss Jones was careless, idle, and impudent; her
step-mother was dissatisfied because she was not taken into the house;
and Clerk Gum threatened every day, and his wife very often, to dismiss
her.