h which she
now refreshed herself, was so choice in quality that she took a second
pinch.

'There's the little bell a-ringing now,' said Mrs Gamp, hurrying to
the stair-head and looking over. 'Betsey Prig, my--why it's that there
disapintin' Sweedlepipes, I do believe.'

'Yes, it's me,' said the barber in a faint voice; 'I've just come in.'

'You're always a-comin' in, I think,' muttered Mrs Gamp to herself,
'except wen you're a-goin' out. I ha'n't no patience with that man!'

'Mrs Gamp,' said the barber. 'I say! Mrs Gamp!'

'Well,' cried Mrs Gamp, impatiently, as she descended the stairs. 'What
is it? Is the Thames a-fire, and cooking its own fish, Mr Sweedlepipes?
Why wot's the man gone and been a-doin' of to himself? He's as white as
chalk!'

She added the latter clause of inquiry, when she got downstairs, and
found him seated in the shaving-chair, pale and disconsolate.

'You recollect,' said Poll. 'You recollect young--'

'Not young Wilkins!' cried Mrs Gamp. 'Don't say young Wilkins, wotever
you do. If young Wilkins's wife is took--'

'It isn't anybody's wife,' exclaimed the little barber. 'Bailey, young
Bailey!'

'Why, wot do you mean to say that chit's been a-doin' of?' retorted Mrs
Gamp, sharply. 'Stuff and nonsense, Mrs Sweedlepipes!'

'He hasn't been a-doing anything!' exclaimed poor Poll, quite desperate.
'What do you catch me up so short for, when you see me put out to that
extent that I can hardly speak? He'll never do anything again. He's done
for. He's killed. The first time I ever see that boy,' said Poll, 'I
charged him too much for a red-poll. I asked him three-halfpence for a
penny one, because I was afraid he'd beat me down. But he didn't.
And now he's dead; and if you was to crowd all the steam-engines and
electric fluids that ever was, into this shop, and set 'em every one to
work their hardest, they couldn't square the account, though it's only a
ha'penny!'

Mr Sweedlepipe turned aside to the towel, and wiped his eyes with it.

'And what a clever boy he was!' he said. 'What a surprising young chap
he was! How he talked! and what a deal he know'd! Shaved in this very
chair he was; only for fun; it was all his fun; he was full of it. Ah!
to think that he'll never be shaved in earnest! The birds might every
one have died, and welcome,' cried the little barber, looking round him
at the cages, and again applying to the towel, 'sooner than I'd have
heard this news!'

'How did you ever