"'Now you go in front,' says she to Joe, and he went. She laid her
candle down in the hall and unbolted the front door.

"'What are you going to do?' says Joe, 'call the police? Because if so,
my dear, I'll take my chance of that revolver being loaded and of your
pulling the trigger in time. It will be a more dignified ending.'

"'No,' says she, 'I had a brother that got seven years for forgery. I
don't want to think of another face like his when he came out. I'm going
to see you outside my master's house, and that's all I care about.'

"She went down the garden-path with him, and opened the gate.

"'You turn round,' says she, 'before you reach the bottom of the lane and
I give the alarm.' And Joe went straight, and didn't look behind him.

"Well, it was a rum beginning to a courtship, but the end was rummer. The
girl was willing to marry him if he would turn honest. Joe wanted to
turn honest, but didn't know how.

"'It's no use fixing me down, my dear, to any quiet, respectable
calling,' says Joe to the gal, 'because, even if the police would let me
alone, I wouldn't be able to stop there. I'd break out, sooner or later,
try as I might.'

"The girl went to her master, who seems to have been an odd sort of a
cove, and told him the whole story. The old gent said he'd see Joe, and
Joe called on him.

"'What's your religion?' says the old gent to Joe.