am can, Mrs. Courage will be a-leavin' of us this morning, with all
our good wishes, I'm sure. Good-dye to you, Mary Ann, and God bless
you after all the years you've been with us. Madam's givin' you your
dismissal."

Obedient to her cue Letty lowered her guard just enough to incline her
head with the grace Steptoe had already pronounced "letter perfect."
The shock to Mrs. Courage can best be narrated in her own terms to
Mrs. Walter Wildgoose later in the day.

"Airs! No one couldn't imagine it, Bessie, what 'adn't seen it for
theirselves--what them baggages'll do--smokin'--and wearin' pearl
necklaces--and 'avin' their own limousines--all that I've seen and 'ad
got used to--but not the President's wife--not Mary Queen of
England--could 'a myde you feel as if you was dirt hunder their feet
like what this one--and 'er with one of them marked down sixty-nine
cent blouses that 'adn't seen the wash since--and as for looks--why,
she didn't 'ave a look to bless 'erself--and a-'oldin' of 'erself like
what a empress might--and bowin' 'er 'ead, and goin' back to 'er
pyper, as if I'd disturbed 'er at 'er readin'--and the dead and
spitten image of 'Enery Steptoe 'imself she is--and you know 'ow many
times we've all wondered as to why 'e didn't marry--and 'im with
syvings put by--Jynie thinks as 'e's worth as much as--and you know
what a 'and Jynie is for ferritin' out what's none of 'er
business--why, if Jynie Cykebread could 'a myde 'erself Jynie
Steptoe--but that's somethink wild 'orses wouldn't myke poor Jynie
see--that no man wouldn't look at 'er the second time if it wasn't for
to laugh--pitiful, I call it, at 'er aige--and me always givin' the
old rip to know as it was no use 'is 'angin' round where I was--as if
I'd marry agyne, and me a widda, as you might sye, from my crydle--and
if I did, it wouldn't 'a been a wicked old varlet what I always
suspected 'e was leadin' a double life--and now to see them two fyces
together--why, I says, 'ere's the explanytion as plyne as plyne can
make it...."

All of which might have been true in rhetoric, but not in fact. For
what had really given Mrs. Courage the _coup de grace_ we must go back
to the scene of the morning.

Ignoring both Letty's inclination of the head and Steptoe's
benediction she had shown herself hurt where she was tenderest.

"Now that there's no one to ryse their voice agynst the disgryce
brought on this family but me----"

"Speak right up, Jynie. Don't be afry