their
way.

"Yes. I can't afford trams now--times are too hard."

"Sorry I don't happen to have no tickets on me!"

"Oh, don't mention it. I'm well used to walking. I'd rather walk than
ride."

They waited till the tram passed.

"Some people"--said Bill, reflectively, but with a tinge of indignation
in his tone, as they crossed the street--"some people can afford to ride
in trams.

"What's your trouble, Mrs Aspinall--if it's a fair thing to ask?" said
Bill, as they turned the corner.

This was all she wanted, and more; and when, about a mile later, she
paused for breath, he drew a long one, gave a short whistle, and said:

"Well, it's red-hot!"

Thus encouraged, she told her story again, and some parts of it for the
third and fourth and even fifth time--and it grew longer, as our stories
have a painful tendency to do when we re-write them with a view to
condensation.

But Bill heroically repeated that it was "red-hot."

"And I dealt off the grocer for fifteen years, and the wood-and-coal
man for ten, and I lived in that house nine years last Easter Monday and
never owed a penny before," she repeated for the tenth time.

"Well, that's a mistake," reflected Bill. "I never dealt off nobody
more'n twice in my life.... I heerd you was married again, Mrs
Aspinall--if it's a right thing to ask?"

"Wherever did you hear that? I did get married again--to my sorrow."

"Then you ain't Mrs Aspinall--if it's a fair thing to ask?"

"Oh, yes! I'm known as Mrs Aspinall. They all call me Mrs Aspinall."

"I understand. He cleared, didn't he? Run away?"

"Well, yes--no---he---"

"I understand. He's s'posed to be dead?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's red-hot! So's my old man, and I hope he don't resurrect
again."

"You see, I married my second for the sake of my children."

"That's a great mistake," reflected Bill. "My mother married my
step-father for the sake of me, and she's never been done telling me
about it."

"Indeed! Did _your_ mother get married again?"

"Yes. And he left me with a batch of step-sisters and step-brothers to
look after, as well as mother; as if things wasn't bad enough before. We
didn't want no help to be pinched, and poor, and half-starved. I don't
see where my sake comes in at all."

"And how's your mother now?"

"Oh, she's all right, thank you. She's got a hard time of it, but she's
pretty well used to it."

"And are you still working at Grinder Brothers'?"

"No. I got tired of sla