 rights and dignity. It was natural for four
reasons: firstly, because Mrs. Quilp being a young woman and notoriously under
the dominion of her husband ought to be excited to rebel; secondly, because Mrs.
Quilp's parent was known to be laudably shrewish in her disposition and inclined
to resist male authority; thirdly, because each visitor wished to show for
herself how superior she was in this respect to the generality of her sex; find
fourthly, because the company being accustomed to scandalise each other in
pairs, were deprived of their usual subject of conversation now that they were
all assembled in close friendship, and had consequently no better employment
than to attack the common enemy.
    Moved by these considerations, a stout lady opened the proceedings by
inquiring, with an air of great concern and sympathy, how Mr. Quilp was;
whereunto Mr. Quilp's wife's mother replied sharply, »Oh! he was well enough -
nothing much was ever the matter with him - and ill weeds were sure to thrive.«
All the ladies then sighed in concert, shook their heads gravely, and looked at
Mrs. Quilp as at a martyr.
    »Ah!« said the spokeswoman, »I wish you'd give her a little of your advice,
Mrs. Jiniwin« - Mrs. Quilp had been a Miss Jiniwin it should be observed -
»nobody knows better than you, ma'am, what us women owe to ourselves.«
    »Owe indeed, ma'am!« replied Mrs. Jiniwin. »When my poor husband, her dear
father, was alive, if he had ever ventur'd a cross word to me, I'd have --« the
good old lady did not finish the sentence, but she twisted off the head of a
shrimp with a vindictiveness which seemed to imply that the action was in some
degree a substitute for words. In this light it was clearly understood by the
other party, who immediately replied with great approbation, »You quite enter
into my feelings, ma'am, and it's jist what I'd do myself.«
    »But you have no call to do it,« said Mrs. Jiniwin. »Luckily for you, you
have no more occasion to do it than I had.«
    »No woman need have, if she was true to herself,« rejoined the stout lady.
    »Do you hear that, Betsy?« said Mrs. Jiniwin, in a warning voice. »How often
have I said the very same words to you, and almost gone down
