ite
plain, ma'am, for the blankit was tight round ye."

Mrs Denman covered her face with her hand at this point, and resting
her elbow on the arm of her chair, reflected that the thing was beyond
remedy, and that, as the man had come and was now looking at her,
matters could not be worse; so she resolved to carry out her original
intention, and question him as to the best course of action in the event
of fire.

"My good man," she said, "I have taken the liberty of asking you to come
here to tell me what I should do to guard against fire in future."

Joe rubbed his nose and looked at the ground; then he stroked his chin
and looked at the old lady; then a look of intelligence lighted up his
expressive countenance as he said abruptly--

"Is yer house an' furniture insured, ma'am?"

"No, it is not," replied Mrs Denman. "I have never insured in my life,
because although I hear of fires every day in London, it has never
occurred to me until lately that there was any probability of _my_ house
being burned. I know it was very foolish of me, but I shall see to
having it done directly."

"That's right, ma'am," said Joe, with an approving nod. "If you seed
the heaps an' heaps o' splendid furnitur' an' goods an' buildin's as is
burnt every day a'most in London, an' lost to the owners 'cause they
grudged the few shillin's of insurance, or 'cause they was careless an'
didn't b'lieve a fire would ever come to them, no matter how many might
come to other folk, you'd insure yer house an' furnitur' first thing i'
the mornin', ma'am."

"I have no doubt you say what is quite correct, Mr Corney, and I will
certainly attend to this matter in future; but I am more particularly
anxious to know how I should act if the house in which I live were to
take fire."

"Get out of it as fast as possible," said Joe promptly, "an' screech out
_fire_! till yer sides is sore."

"But suppose," said Mrs Denman, with a faint smile, "that the fire is
burning in the stair, and the house full of smoke, what am I to do?"

"Och! I see yer drift now, ma'am," said Joe, with a knowing look. "Av
it's that what ye wants to know, I'll just, with your lave, ma'am, give
ye a small discourse on the subjic'."

Joe cleared his throat, and began with the air of a man who knows what
he is talking about.

"It's as well, ma'am, to begin by tryin' to prevent yer house ketchin'
fire--prevention bein' better nor cure. If ye'd kape clear o' that,
there's two or