deck, we got something
out of him in return for his lodging.

About this time, finding a few shillings over and no expense imminent,
I laid down a cellar, in the shape of a four and a half gallon cask of
beer, with a firm resolution that it should never be touched save on
high days and holidays, or when guests had to be entertained.

Shortly afterwards Jack went away to sea again; and after his departure
there were several furious quarrels between the women down below, which
filled the whole house with treble reproaches and repartees. At last one
evening Miss Williams--the quiet one--came to me and announced with sobs
that she must go. Mrs. Wotton made her life unbearable, she said. She
was determined to be independent, and had fitted up a small shop in a
poor quarter of the town. She was going now, at once, to take possession
of it.

I was sorry, because I liked Miss Williams, and I said a few words to
that effect. She got as far as the hall door, and then came rustling
back again into the consulting room. "Take a drink of your own beer!"
she cried, and vanished.

It sounded like some sort of slang imprecation. If she had said "Oh,
pull up your socks!" I should have been less surprised. And then
suddenly the words took a dreadful meaning in my mind, and I rushed to
the cellar. The cask was tilted forward on the trestles. I struck it and
it boomed like a drum. I turned the tap, and not one drop appeared. Let
us draw a veil over the painful scene. Suffice it that Mrs. Wotton got
her marching orders then and there--and that next day Paul and I found
ourselves alone in the empty house once more.

But we were demoralised by luxury. We could no longer manage without a
helper--especially now in the winter time, when fires had to be lit--the
most heart-breaking task that a man can undertake. I bethought me of
the quiet Miss Williams, and hunted her up in her shop. She was quite
willing to come, and saw how she could get out of the rent; but the
difficulty lay with her stock. This sounded formidable at first, but
when I came to learn that the whole thing had cost eleven shillings, it
did not appear insurmountable. In half an hour my watch was pawned, and
the affair concluded. I returned with an excellent housekeeper, and
with a larger basketful of inferior Swedish matches, bootlaces, cakes of
black lead, and little figures made of sugar than I should have thought
it possible to get for the money. So now we have settled do