ed herrings.

Nobody came, so he tapped the floor with his whip, and a voice growled
savagely from beyond a half-glass door which guarded an inner room--

Waiting patiently for a few moments, the cabman became aware of the fact
that Barnabas Sturt consumed his tobacco as well as dealt in it; and at
last, growing impatient, he peered through the window, to perceive that
a very thin, sour-looking woman, with high cheek bones, was dipping
pieces of rag into a tea-cup of vinegar and water, and applying them to
the contused countenance of a bull-headed gentleman, who lay back in a
chair smoking, and making the woman wince and sneeze by puffing volumes
of the coarse, foul vapour into her face.

"Better mind what you are doing!" he growled.

"Can't help it, dear," said the woman, plaintively, "if you smoke me so.
Well, what now?" she said, waspishly, and changing her tone to the
metallic aggressive common amongst some women.

"Been having a--?" the cabman finished his sentence by grinning, and
giving his arms a pugilistic flourish.

"What's that got to do with you?" growled Mr Sturt. "What d' yer come
into people's places like that for?"

"Because people says as they sells the werry best tobacco at threepence
a hounce," said the cabman. "Give's half-hounce."

"Go an' weigh it," said Mr Sturt.

The woman dropped the piece of rag she held, and passed shrinkingly into
the shop, took the already weighed-out tobacco from a jar, and held out
her hand for the money.

"Now then," growled Mr Sturt from the back room, "hand that over here,
will yer?"

The cabman walked into the room and laid down the money, slowly emptying
the paper afterwards into a pouch, which he took from a side pocket.

"This here's twenty-seven, ain't it?" said the cabman then.

"Yes, it is twenty-seven," cried Mr Sturt--our friend Barney of the
steeplechase--and he seemed so much disturbed that he leaped up and
backed into a corner of the room. "You ain't got nothin' again' me,
come, now."

"No, I ain't got nothin' again' yer," said the cabman, quietly, but with
his eye twinkling. "Did yer think I was--?"

He finished his sentence with a wink.

"Never you mind what I thought," said Barney. "What d' yer want here?"

"Only to know if Mrs Lane lives here."

"Yes, she do," cried the woman, spitefully; "and why couldn't you ring
the side bell, and not come bothering us?"

"Because I wanted some tobacco, mum," said the cabman, quietly.

"O