It had opened thus
perhaps some six inches when he spoke:
"Is that you, Mr. Shrig?"
Immediately the door became stationary and, after some brief pause a
voice issued from behind it, a voice somewhat wheezing and hoarse.
"Which your parding I ax, sir," said the voice, "which your parding
I 'umbly ax, but it ain't, me being a respectable female, sir, name
o' Snummitt, sir--charing, sir, also washing and clear-starching, sir!"
Hereupon, the door having opened to its fullest, Barnabas saw a stout,
middle-aged woman whose naturally unlovely look had been further
marred by the loss of one eye, while the survivor, as though
constantly striving to make amends, was continually rolling itself
up and down and to and fro, in a manner quite astonishing to behold.
"Which my name is Snummitt," she repeated, bobbing a curtsy and
momentarily eclipsing the rolling eye under the poke of a very large
bonnet, "Mrs. Snummitt, sir, which though a widder I'm respectable
and of 'igh character and connections. Which me 'aving only one heye
ain't by no manner of means to be 'eld ag'in me, seeing as it were
took away by a act o' Providence in the shape of another lady's
boot-'eel sixteen summers ago come Michaelmas.
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