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ribald jeers, whooping's, and catcalls, high into the night air. "Ga-l-a-ng! Hi-hi! What ye-e-h 'bout!"
"This is outrageous, Mrs. Miller. Where's the watchman?"
She smiled faintly. "He takes one of them off occasionally, sir; but he's afraid; they beat him sometimes." A long pause.
"Isn't your room rather cold, Mrs. Miller?" He glanced at the black stove, dimly seen in the outer room. It is necessary to keep the rooms cool just now, but this air seems to me cold."
Receiving no answer, he looked at her and saw the sad truth in her averted face.
"I beg your pardon," he said quickly, flushing to the roots of his hair. "I might have known, after what you said to me this evening."
"We had a little fire here today, sir," she said, struggling with the pride and shame of poverty; "but we have been out of firing for two or three days, and we owe the wharfman something now. The two boys picked up a few chips; but the poor children find it hard to get them, sir. Times are very hard with us, sir; indeed, they are. We'd have got along better, if my husband's