380 FLUTTER-DUCK.
And before that I had to go and find him in Newcastle, and he promised me never to go away again — yes, you did, you know you did, Emanuel, love. And here have I been look- ing weeks for you at all the furriers and tailors, without bread and salt for the children, and the Board of Guardians won't believe me, and blame me for coming to London. Oh, Emanuel, love, God shall forgive you."
Her dress was dishevelled, her wig awry ; big tears streamed down her cheeks.
"How can I live with an old witch like that?" asked Emanuel, in brutal self-defence.
"There are worse than me in the world," rejoined the woman meekly.
" Nee, nee," roughly interposed the master-furrier, who had risen from his sofa in the excitement of the scene. " It is not beautiful not to live with one's wife." He paused to cough. " You must not put her to shame."
" It's she who puts me to shame." Emanuel turned to Rachel, who had let her work slip to the floor, and whose face had grown white and stern, and continued depre- catingly, " I never wanted her. They caught me by a trick."
" Don't talk to me," snapped Rachel, turning her back on him.
The woman looked at her suspiciously — the girl's beauty seemed to burst upon her for the first time. " He is my husband," she repeated, and made as if she would draw out the Cesubah again.
" Nee, nee, enough ! " said the master-furrier curtly. " You are wasting our time. Your husband shall live with you, or he shall not work with me."
" You have deceived us, you rogue ! " put in Flutter-Duck shrilly.
