acting the attention of the
bystanders, who were highly amused to find that Williamson had met his
match. The lady's sarcasms and gibes seemed to make Williamson doubly
crusty. He at length asked the other lady--who, by the way, was becoming
nervous and half-frightened at what was going on--"what this woman,"
pointing to Mrs. C---, "would give for a house if she could meet with one
to her mind." Mrs. C--- told him 30 pounds per annum. Williamson burst
out with an insulting laugh, and called all the men down from the house
they were erecting, and when they had clustered round him he told them
that "this woman wanted a house with ten rooms in it for 30 pounds a
year! Did they ever know of such an unreasonable request?" Of course
the men agreed with their employer, and they were all dismissed after
being regaled with a mug of porter each. Mrs. C--- narrowly watched
Williamson and saw through him at once, and was not surprised on being
invited to step into a house close by and see how she liked it. She
found fault with some portions of the house and approved others.
Williamson at length, after a short silence, inquired whether she really
did want a house and would live in Mason-street. Mrs. C--- replied that
she did really require one and liked the street very much. Williamson
then asked her if she was in a hurry. On being told she was not, he bade
her return that day fortnight at the same hour and he would try then to
show her a house he thought would suit her exactly. With this the ladies
departed, Williamson saying:--"There now, you be off; you come when I
tell you; you'll find me a regular old screw; and if you don't pay your
rent the day it is due I shall law you for it, so be off." Mrs. C---
then said, "My husband is a cockney, and I will bring him with me, and we
will see if we can't turn the screw the right way." The ladies had no
sooner arrived at the end of Mason-street, when on turning to take a last
look of their singular friend they saw the men from the house in
Bolton-street all following Williamson into the house they had just left,
and as it eventually proved he had set them there and then to work to
make the alterations she had suggested and desired.

On the termination of the fortnight the ladies called on their remarkable
friend, and found him in waiting at the house with two great jugs of
sherry and some biscuits on a table. He then took them over the house,
and to their surprise found ever