in her mind sad recollections of Mr. Corney (who had not been dead more than five-and-twenty years), and she was overpowered.
"I shall never get another!" said Mrs. Corney, pettishly, "I shall never get another—like him."
Whether this remark bore reference to the husband or the teapot is uncertain. It might have been the latter; for Mrs. Corney looked at it as she spoke, and took it up afterwards. She had just tasted her first cup, when she was disturbed by a soft tap at the room-door.
"Oh, come in with you!" said Mrs. Corney, sharply. "Some of the old women dying, I suppose;—they always die when I'm at meals. Don't stand there, letting the cold air in, don't. What's amiss now, eh?"
"Nothing, ma'am, nothing," replied a man's voice.
"Dear me!" exclaimed the matron in a much sweeter tone, "is that Mr. Bumble?"
"At your service, ma'am," said Mr. Bumble, who had been stopping outside to rub his shoes clean, and shake the snow off his coat,
