n't you, mim? Though there an't such a
great deal to laugh at now either; is there, mim? It an't so much of a
catch, after looking out so sharp ever since she was a little chit, and
costing such a deal in dress and show, to get a poor, common soldier,
with one arm, is it, mim? He he! I wouldn't have a husband with one arm,
anyways. I would have two arms. I would have two arms, if it was me,
though instead of hands they'd only got hooks at the end, like our
dustman!'

Miss Miggs was about to add, and had, indeed, begun to add, that,
taking them in the abstract, dustmen were far more eligible matches than
soldiers, though, to be sure, when people were past choosing they must
take the best they could get, and think themselves well off too; but her
vexation and chagrin being of that internally bitter sort which finds no
relief in words, and is aggravated to madness by want of contradiction,
she could hold out no longer, and burst into a storm of sobs and tears.

In this extremity she fell on the unlucky nephew, tooth and nail, and
plucking a handful of hair from his head, demanded to know how long she
was to stand there to be insulted, and whether or no he meant to help
her to carry out the box again, and if he took a pleasure in hearing his
family reviled: with other inquiries of that nature; at which disgrace
and provocation, the small boy, who had been all this time gradually
lashed into rebellion by the sight of unattainable pastry, walked off
indignant, leaving his aunt and the box to follow at their leisure.
Somehow or other, by dint of pushing and pulling, they did attain the
street at last; where Miss Miggs, all blowzed with the exertion of
getting there, and with her sobs and tears, sat down upon her property
to rest and grieve, until she could ensnare some other youth to help her
home.

'It's a thing to laugh at, Martha, not to care for,' whispered the
locksmith, as he followed his wife to the window, and good-humouredly
dried her eyes. 'What does it matter? You had seen your fault before.
Come! Bring up Toby again, my dear; Dolly shall sing us a song; and
we'll be all the merrier for this interruption!'

Chapter 81

Another month had passed, and the end of August had nearly come, when Mr
Haredale stood alone in the mail-coach office at Bristol. Although but a
few weeks had intervened since his conversation with Edward Chester and
his niece, in the locksmith's house, and he had made no change, in the
m