Page:The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.djvu/23

Rh world for the treatment she had received, and often spoke of it. "I ought to 'ave bin in my kerridge, and 'e in the 'Ouse," she would say bitterly, "if 'e 'adn't bin such a brute, but ye can't make a man out of a beast, whatever those Darwin folks say."

And, indeed, it was a hard case, for just at the time when she should have been resting, and reaping the reward for her early industry, she had to toil for her daily bread, and all through no fault of her own. Depend upon it, that if Adam was angry at Eve for having eaten the apple and got them driven out of the pleasant garden, his descendants have amply revenged themselves on Eve's daughters for her sin. Mrs. Hableton is only the type of many women who, hardworking and thrifty themselves, are married to men who are a curse both to their wives and families. Little wonder it was that Mrs. Hableton should have condensed all her knowledge of the masculine gender in the one bitter aphorism, "Men is brutes." This she firmly believed in, and who can say she had not good grounds for saying so? "They is brutes," said Mrs. Hableton; "they marries a woman, and makes her a beast of burden while they sits at 'ome swillin' beer and calling themselves lords of creation."

Possum Villa was an unpretentious-looking place, with one bow window and a narrow verandah in front. It was surrounded with a small garden and a few sparse flowers in it which were Mrs. Hableton's delight. When not otherwise engaged, she tied an old handkerchief round her head and went out into the garden, where she dug and watered her flowers until they all gave up attempting to grow from sheer desperation at not being left alone. She was engaged in her favorite occupation about a week after her lodger had disappeared, and was wondering where he had gone.

"Lyin' drunk in a public 'ouse, I'll be bound," she said, viciously pulling up a weed with an angry tug, "a-spendin' 'is rent and a-spilin' 'is inside with beer—ah, men is brutes, drat 'em!"

Just as she said this a shadow fell across the garden, and on looking up, she saw a man leaning over the fence, looking at her.

"Git out," she said, sharply, rising from her knees and