shouldn't wonder if she pleases some people more.'

Mary dropped her eyes as she spoke, and smiled gently. Ackroyd
tapped with his foot.

'That's Totty Nancarrow,' said Mrs. Bower, reappearing from the
shop. 'What a girl that is, to be sure! She's for all the world like
a lad put into petticoats. I should think there's a-goin' to be a
feast over in Newport Street. A tin o' sardines, four bottles o'
ginger-beer, two pound o' seed cake, an' two pots o' raspberry! Eh,
she's a queer 'un! I can't think where she gets her money from
either.'

'It's a pity to see Thyrza going about with her so much,' said Mary,
gravely.

'Why, I can't say as I know any real harm of her,' said her mother,
'unless it is as she's a Catholic.'

'Totty Nancarrow a Catholic!' exclaimed Ackroyd. 'Why, I never knew
that.'

'Her mother was Irish, you see, an' I don't suppose as her father
thought much about religion. I dessay there's some good people
Catholics, but I can't say as I take much to them I know.'

Mary's face was expressing lively feeling.

'How can they be really good, mother, when their religion lets them
do wrong, if only they'll go and confess it to the priest? I