that Harry, cursed young brute!' says she. 'It serves him right, it
does, to marry a girl out of the gutter!'

And with that--I couldn't help it--I fetched her a smack on the side
of the face with the flat of my hand as hard as I could, and bolted
off, her after me, and me being young and she stout she couldn't
keep up with me. Gutter, indeed! and my father a respectable
labourer, and known far and wide.

There were several strangers come the day the coffin was got up. It
was a dreadful thing to me to see them digging, not to make a grave
to be filled up, but to empty one. And there were a lot of people
there I didn't know; and the parson, and another parson, seemingly a
friend of his, and every one as could get near looking on.

They got the coffin up, and they took it to the room at the Star, at
Alfreston, where inquests are held, and the doctors were there, and
we were all shut out. And Harry and John and I stood on the stairs.
But parson, being a friend of the doctor's, he was let in, him and
his friend. And we heard voices and the squeak of the screws as they
was drawn out; and we heard the coffin lid being laid down, and then
there was a hush, and some one spoke up very sharp inside, and we
couldn't hear what he said for the noise and confusion that came
from every one speaking at once, and nineteen to the dozen it
seemed.

'What is it?' says Harry, trembling like a leaf: 'O my God! what is
it? If they don't open the door afore long, by God, I shall burst it
open! He was murdered, he was! And if they wait much longer, that
woman will have time to get away.'