t round, and the kissing and slobbering scene went on again, only I
was left out, thank goodness. I hate such sentimentality.

"CHE-E-E-EAT ME," says I, mocking her. "What do you mean, then, by
saying you're so rich? Say, have you got money, or have you not?" (And I
rapped out a good number of oaths, too, which I don't put in here; but I
was in a dreadful fury, that's the fact.)

"So help me heaven," says mamma, in answer, going down on her knees and
smacking her two hands, "I have but a Queen Anne's guinea in the whole
of this wicked world."

"Then what, Madam, induces you to tell these absurd stories to me, and
to talk about your riches, when you know that you and your daughters are
beggars, Ma'am--BEGGARS?"

"My dearest boy, have we not got the house, and the furniture, and a
hundred a year still; and have you not great talents, which will make
all our fortunes?" says Mrs. Stubbs, getting up off her knees, and
making believe to smile as she clawed hold of my hand and kissed it.

This was TOO cool. "YOU have got a hundred a year, Ma'am," says I--"YOU
have got a house? Upon my soul and honor this is the first I ever heard
of it; and I'll tell you what, Ma'am," says I (and it cut her PRETTY
SHARPLY too): "as you've got it, YOU'D BETTER GO AND LIVE IN IT. I've
got quite enough to do with my own house, and every penny of my own
income."

Upon this speech the old lady said nothing, but she gave a screech loud
enough to be heard from here to York, and down she fell--kicking and
struggling in a regular fit.

*****

I did not see Mrs. Stubbs for some days after this, and the girls used
to come down to meals, and never speak; going up again and stopping with
their mother. At last, one day, both of them came in very solemn to
my study, and Eliza, the eldest, said, "Robert, mamma has paid you our
board up to Michaelmas."

"She has," says I; for I always took precious good care to have it in
advance.

"She says, Robert, That on Michaelmas day--we'll--we'll go away,
Robert."

"Oh, she's going to her own house, is she, Lizzy? Very good. She'll want
the furniture, I suppose, and that she may have too, for I'm going to
sell the place myself." And so THAT matter was settled.

*****

On Michaelmas day--and during these two months I hadn't, I do believe,
seen my mother twice (once, about two o'clock in the morning, I woke and
found her sobbing over my bed)--on Michaelmas-day morning, Eliza
comes to me and says, "ROBERT