g from the Oxford adventure.

Mrs. Bindle knew nothing of that, and consequently was unaware that
Bindle's wardrobe had been considerably enlarged.

Mrs. Bindle caught sight of him in the looking-glass. For a moment she
stared at the reflection in helpless amazement, then turning round with
startling suddenness, she continued to regard him with such fixity as
he stood complacently smoking his cigar, that Bindle could not resist
replying with the broadest of grins.

"Where'd you get that dress-suit?" she asked at length, in the tone a
policeman might adopt to a navvy found wearing a diamond tiara.

"It's me own, o' course," replied Bindle cheerily.

"Your own!" gasped Mrs. Bindle.

"O' course it is. Your ole man's a bit of a blood, Mrs. B., and you're
a lucky woman. Won't ole 'Earty open them merry eyes of 'is when 'e
sees me to-night. What-oh!" and Bindle executed a few impromptu steps,
holding his overcoat at arm's-length.

Mrs. Bindle continued to regard him with wonder. She glanced at her
own rather shabby black dress lying on the bed, and then her eyes
returned to Bindle. She examined with grim intentness his well-cut
clothes.

"Where'd you get them from?" she rapped.

"Don't you worry where your peacock got 'is tail; you just feel proud,"
replied Bindle, seating himself on the only chair the bedroom boasted.
"Your ole man is goin' to be the belle of the ball to-night."

"You been buyin' them things, an' me doin' my own housework an' keepin'
you when you're out of work!" Mrs. Bindle's voice rose as the full
sense of the injustice of it all began to dawn upon her. "You spendin'
money on dress-suits and beer, an' me inchin' an' pinchin' to keep you
in food. It's a shame. I won't stand it, I won't." Mrs. Bindle
looked about her helplessly. "I'll leave you, I will, you--you----"

"Oh no, yer won't," remarked Bindle complacently; "women like you don't
leave men like me. That's wot matrimony's for, to keep two people
together wot ought to be kept apart by Act o' Parliament."

"Where'd you get that dress-suit?" broke in Mrs. Bindle tenaciously.

"As I was sayin'," continued Bindle imperturbably, "matrimony's a funny
thing."

"Where'd you get that dress-suit?" Mrs. Bindle broke in again.

Bindle sighed, and cast up his eyes in mock appeal. "I 'ad it give to
me so that I might be worthy o' wot the Lord 'as sent me an' won't 'ave
back at no price--that is to say, yerself, Mrs. B. If marriages i