I don't
let you in again in a hurry.'
'I will give you a sovereign.'
'Honour bright?' bawled the old woman; 'let me look at it.'
'Here it is, in my hand.'
'Jink it on the stuns.'
I threw it down.
'Quid seems to jink all right, anyhow,' she said, 'though I'm more
used to the jink of a tanner than a quid in these cussed times. You
won't skear me if I come down?'
'No, no.'
At last I heard her fumbling inside at the lock, and then the door
opened.
'Why, man alive! your eyes are afire jist like a cat's wi' drownded
kitlins.'
'She was not your daughter.'
'Not my darter?' said she, as she stooped to pick up the sovereign.
'You ain't a-goin' to catch me the likes o' that. The Beauty not my
darter! All the court knows she was my own on'y darter. I'll swear
afore all the beaks in London as I'm the mother of my own on'y darter
Winifred, allus' wur 'er mother, and allus wull be; an' if she went
a-beggin' it worn't my fort. She liked beggin', poor dear; some gals
does.'
'Her name Winifred!' I cried, with a pang at my heart as sharp as
though there had been a reasonable hope till now.
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