"Ann Angelina Trapes is me name."

"Why then, ma'am, you've took the wrong turning. 'Owbeit an'
notwithstanding, 'ooever you are and nevertheless, you will find the
tradespeople's entra--"

"You're the gentleman as is so obligin' as to be Mr. Ravenslee's
butler, ain't you?"

"Sich is my perfession," Mr. Brimberly admitted. "I am in sole charge of
these premises and so being will ask you to withdraw 'ence immediate. I
will ask--"

"An' I'll ask you, very p'inted, what you reckon you're doin' in that
chair?"

"Doing?"

"I'll ask you, very p'inted, why you're loafin' around wastin' your
master's time?"

"Loafing?" cried Mr. Brimberly, very red in the face. "Loaf--"

"I also ask you, very p'inted, wherefore an' why you loaf, guzzlin' an'
swillin' your master's good liquor?"

"Guzzling!" gasped Mr. Brimberly. "Oh, 'eavens, this is a outrage, this
is! I'll--"

"It sure is! An' so are you, winebibber!"

"Winebib--" Mr. Brimberly choked, his round face grew purple, and he
flourished pudgy fists while Mrs. Trapes folded her cotton-gloved hands
and watched him.

"Winebibber!" she nodded. "An' the wine as you now bib is your master's,
consequently it was stole, an' bein' stole you're a thief, an' bein' a
thief--"

"Thief!" gurgled Mr. Brimberly. "Ha, thief's a hepithet, thief is, and a
hepithet 's hactionable! I'll 'ave you indented for perjoorious
expressions--"

"Winebibber!" she sighed. "Snake an' plunderer!"

"Never," cried Mr. Brimberly, "never in all my days did I ever 'earken
to such contoomacious contoomacity! 'Oo are you an' wot--"

"Hand over that bottle and what you've left o' them cigars!"

"Woman, begone!" he cried hoarsely. "Woman, if you don't go 'ence this
very moment, I'll have you persecuted with the hutmost vigour o' the
law for a incorrigible--female!"

"Female!" repeated Mrs. Trapes; and clasping herself in her long, bony
arms she shuddered and smiled, though her eyes glared more stonily, and
her elbows suggested rapier points, daggers, and other deadly weapons of
offence.

"Female it were, I think?" she enquired with another grim and smiling
shudder. "Now, sir, to you I sez, debased creecher, I sez, vulgar an'
dishonest loafer, I sez, sly an' subtle serpent, I sez, return to the
back scullery wherefrom you sprang lest I seize you by the hair of your
cheeks an' bounce your silly head against the wall--frequent, I sez!"
and very slowly, Mrs. Trapes moved toward him.

Mr. Brimber