Bubb? Did you never hear of people being
prosecuted for taking away people's characters? Just you mind what
you're about, Mrs. Bubb. I give you fair warning, and that's all I
have to say to you."
Having relieved her feelings with these and a few more verbal
missiles, Polly ran up the kitchen steps. In the passage the two men
were still conversing; at sight of Polly they stopped with an
abruptness which did not escape her observation. No doubt, she said
to herself, they had been talking about her. No doubt, too, they had
their reasons for letting her go by as before without a word. Only
when she was half-way up the first flight of stairs did Mr.
Cheeseman call to her a "Goodnight, Miss Sparkes," to which she made
no reply whatever.
On the morrow she called at the little stationer's shop, but no
letter awaited her. She decided to be again at the rendezvous that
evening, lest there should have been some mistake in her cipher
message; but she lingered near the College of Surgeons in vain.
Polly's heart sank as she went home, for to-night there was no one
to quarrel with.
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