"But why remain in peril of your life? You will be crushed under the ruins some stormy night."
"Why remain here? Because I've nowhere else to go to. I will not go into the union, and I will not live in a house with other folk. I am accustomed to be alone. I am not afraid. Here I am at liberty, and I will here die rather than lose my freedom."
"You cannot even shut your door."
"I do not need to. I fear nothing, not the sanitary officer; he can do nothing. Not the board of guardians; they can do nothing. Not the magistrates; they cannot touch me."[1]
"Have you anything to live on?"
"I pick up a trifle. I bless bad knees and stop the flow of blood, and show where stolen goods are hidden, and tell who has ill-wished any one."
"You receive contributions from the superstitious."
"I get my living my own way. There is room for all in the world."
Arminell seated herself in a chair offered her, and looked at the raven in its cage, picking at the bars.
Silence ensued for a few minutes. Patience folded her bare brown arms across her bosom, and standing opposite the girl, studied her from head to foot.
"The Honourable Miss Inglett!" she said, and laughed. "Why are you the honourable, and I the common person? Why are you a lady, at ease, well-dressed, and I a poor old
- ↑ The reader may think this an impossible case. At the present moment an old woman in the author's immediate neighbourhood is thus defying all the authorities. They have come to a dead lock. She has resisted orders to leave for three years, and is in hourly peril of her life. The only person who could expel her is the landlord, who happens to be poor, and who says that he cannot rebuild the cottage; the woman who has it on a lease is bound to deliver it over at the end of the time in good order, but she is without the means to put the cottage in order. Next equinoctial gale may see her crushed to death.
