And then, no sooner had she sealed it than Mr Ibbs sends up a cry: there''s a coach, pulled up at his shop door, with two gents—an old one, and a younger—getting out, and with them, a bully with a club. Well! The lady runs shrieking to her room and I stand, tearing the hair out of my head. Then I go to the cribs, and I fetch up this one particular baby that is there—a girl, same size as the other, looks to turn out fair, like her—and I carry her upstairs. I said, "Here! Take her quick, and be kind to her! Her name''s Maud; and that''s a name for a lady after all. Remember your word." "Remember yours!" the poor girl cries; and she kisses her own baby, and I take it, and bring it down and lay it in the empty cot. . .''
She shakes her head. ''Such a trifling little thing it was to do!'' she says.''—And done in a minute. Done, while the gentlemen are still hammering at the door. "Where is she?" they''re crying. "We know you''ve got her!" No stopping them, then. Mr Ibbs lets them in, they fly through the house like furies—see me and knock me down, next