o--He don't! Even the Devil don't know. I tell you
this, Jerry--there never was a buildin' job finished at any time spoke
of aforehand. It's always _after_ any such a time. And if you jump on
for to catch it up, it's _afterer_."

"Best to hold one's tongue about it, eh? Anyway, the old lady's got a
berth for a time. Rum story! She'd have been put to it if it hadn't been
for the turn things took. When's she to go?"

"To these here Towels, or Towers, whichever you call 'em? M'riar didn't
spot that. When she's took back, I suppose. When the young lady goes."

"What'll your young customer say to Mrs. Prichard being gone, when his
aunt brings him back?"

Uncle Mo seemed to cogitate over this. He had not perhaps been fully
alive to the disappointment in store for Dave when he came back and
found no Mrs. Picture at Sapps Court. Poor little man! The old
prizefighter's tender heart was touched on his boy's behalf. But after
all there would be worse trials than this on the rough road of life for
Dave. "He'll have to lump it, I expect, Jerry," said he. "Besides, Mrs.
P., she'll come back as soon as the new plaster's dry. She's not going
to stop at the Towels--Towers--whatever they are!--for a thousand
years."

CHAPTER XXXI

HOW GWEN GOT AT MRS. PRICHARD's HISTORY, OR SOME OF IT. ONE CRIME
MORE OF HER SON'S. THE WALLS OF TROY, AND THOSE OF SAPPS COURT.
AUNT M'RIAR'S VISIT OF INSPECTION. HOW SHE CALLED ON MRS.
RAGSTROAR, WHO SENT HER SECRETIVE SON ROUND. HIS MESSAGE FROM MR.
WIX. WHO WAS COMING TO SEE HIS MOTHER, UNLESS SHE WAS SOMEBODY
ELSE. A MESSAGE TO MR. WIX, UNDERTAKEN BY MICHAEL. UNCLE MO's JOY
AT THE PROSPECT OF DAVE AND DOLLY

How very improbable the Actual would sometimes feel, were it not for our
knowledge of the events which led up to it!

Nothing could have been more improbable _per se_ than that old Mrs.
Prichard, upstairs at No. 7, down Sapps Court, should become the guest
of the Earl and Countess of Ancester, at The Towers in Rocestershire.
But a number of improbable antecedent events combined to make it
possible, and once its possibility was established, it only needed one
more good substantial improbability to make it actual. Gwen's
individuality was more than enough to supply this. But just think what
a succession of coincidences and strange events had preceded the demand
for it!

To our thinking the New Mud wanted for Dave's _barrage_ was responsible
for the