"I have got a little shop
now in the Commercial Road."
"Whereabouts?" I persisted. "I would like to call and see you."
He gave me the address reluctantly, and said he would esteem it a
great pleasure if I would honour him by a visit, which was a
palpable lie.
The following afternoon I went. I found the place to be a
pawnbroker's shop, and from all appearances he must have been doing
a very brisk business. He was out himself attending a temperance
committee, but his old father was behind the counter, and asked me
inside. Though it was a chilly day there was no fire in the
parlour, and the two old folks sat one each side of the empty
hearth, silent and sad. They seemed little more pleased to see me
than their son, but after a while Mrs. Burridge's natural garrulity
asserted itself, and we fell into chat.
I asked what had become of his sister-in-law, the lady with the
swollen face.
"I couldn't rightly tell you, sir," answered the old lady, "she
ain't livin' with us now. You see, sir," she continued, "John's
got different notions to what 'e used to 'ave. 'E don't cotten
much to them as ain't found grace, and poor Jane never did 'ave
much religion!"
"And the little one?" I inquired.
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