et 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.

It was only within a year or two that they had not kept an indoor
servant; and the fact of their not doing so now puzzled the gossips of
Calne. The clerk's emoluments were the same as ever; there was no Willy
to encroach on them now; and the work of the house required a good
servant. However, it pleased Mrs. Gum to have one in only by day; and who
was to interfere with her if the clerk did not?

Jabez Gum worked on for some little time after eight o'clock, the
breakfast-hour. He rather wondered he was not called to it, and
registered a mental vow to discharge Miss Becky. Presently he went
indoors, put his head into a small sitting-room on the left, and found
the room empty, but the breakfast laid. The kitchen was behind it, and
Jabez Gum stalked on down the passage, and went into it. On the other
side of the passage was the best sitting-room, and a very small room at
the back of it, which Jabez used as an office, and where he kept sundry
account-books.

"Where's your missis?" asked he of the maid, who was on her knees
toasting bread.

"Not down yet," was the short response.

"Not down yet!" repeated Jabez in surprise, for Mrs. Gum was generally
down by seven. "You've got that door open again, Rebecca. How many more
times am I to tell you I won't have it?"

"It's the smoke," said Rebecca. "This chimbley always smokes when it's
first lighted."