Prater's and Cheeseman's; but I
never did hold so much with money, when shattery ways comes along of it.
No daughter of mine stirs out-of-doors after sundown, I can tell them."

Thus were the minds of the men disturbed, or at any rate those of the
elder ones; while the women, on the whole, were pleased, although they
pretended to be contemptuous. "I'll tell you what I think, ma'am," Mrs.
Cheeseman said to Widow Shanks quite early, "if you take a farthing less
than half a guinea a week for your dimity-parlour, with the window up
the hill, and the little door under the big sweet-briar, I shall think
that you are not as you used to be."

"And right you would be, ma'am, and too right there;" Mrs. Shanks sighed
deeply as she thought of it. "There is nobody but you can understand
it, and I don't mind saying it on that account to you. Whenever I have
wanted for a little bit of money, as the nature of lone widows generally
does, it has always been out of your power, Mrs. Cheeseman, to oblige
me, and quite right of you. But I have a good son, thank the Lord,
by the name of Harry, to provide for me; and a guinea a week is the
agreement now for the dimity-parlour, and the three leg'd bed, and cold
dinner to be paid for extra, such as I might send for to your good shop,
with the money ready in the hand of my little girl, and jug below her
apron for refreshment from the Darling."

"Well, I never! My dear soul, you have taken all my breath away. Why,
it must be the captain of all the gunners. How gunpowder do pay, to be
sure!"

"Lor, ma'am, why, don't you know," replied Mrs. Shanks, with some
contempt, "that the man with three ribs is the captain of the
gunners--the man in my back sitting-room? No dimity-parlour for him with
his family, not for a guinea and a half a week. But if I was to tell
you who the gentleman is, and one of the highest all round these parts,
truthful as you know me, Mrs. Cheeseman, you would say to yourself, what
a liar she is!"

"Mrs. Shanks, I never use coarse expressions, even to myself in private.
And perhaps I could tell you a thing or two would astonish you more than
me, ma'am. Suppose I should tell you, to begin with, who your guinea
lodger is?"

"That you could never do, Mrs. Cheeseman, with all your time a-counting
changes. He is not of the rank for a twopenny rasher, or a wedge of
cheese packed in old petticoat."

These two ladies now looked at one another. They had not had a quarrel
for almos