'
It was a pet bird belonging to Madge.
'But what harm does the bird do? It gives no trouble; my daughter
attends to it.'
'Yes, ma'am, but it worrits my Joseph--the cat, I mean. I found him
the other mornin' on the table eyin' it, and I can't a-bear to see
him urritated.'
'I should hardly have thought that a reason for parting with good
lodgers.'
Mrs Hopgood had intended to move, as before explained, but she did
not wish to go till the three months had expired.
'I don't say as that is everything, but if you wish me to tell you
the truth, Miss Madge is not a person as I like to keep in the house.
I wish you to know'--Mrs Cork suddenly became excited and venomous--
'that I'm a respectable woman, and have always let my apartments to
respectable people, and do you think I should ever let them to
respectable people again if it got about as I had had anybody as
wasn't respectable? Where was she last night? And do you suppose as
me as has been a married woman can't see the condition she's in? I
say as you, Mrs Hopgood, ought to be ashamed of yourself for bringing
of such a person into a house like mine, and you'll please vacate
these premises on the day named.' She did not wait for an answer,
but banged the door after her, and went down to her subterranean den.
Mrs Hopgood did not tell her children the true reason for leaving.
She merely said that Mrs Cork had been very impertinent, and that
they must look out for other rooms.
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