"It's the way most of us girls do marry," returned Mary Ann. "And what comes of it, I ask? _Blows_ sometimes, Mary Ann; the workhouse sometimes; trouble always." "Is it true that you put by, Charlotte?" "Yes. I put by what I can." "But how in wonder do you manage it? You dress as well as we do. I'm sure our backs take all our money; father pretty nigh keeps the house." "I dress better than you in one sense, Mary Ann. I don't have on a silk gown one day and a petticoat in rags the next. No one ever sees me otherwise than neat and clean, and my clothes keep good a long while. It's the finery that runs away with your money. I am not ashamed to make a bonnet last two years; you'd have two in a season. Another thing, Mary Ann: I do not waste my time--I sit to my work; and I dare say I earn double what you do." "Let us hear what you earned last week, if it isn't impertinent," was Mary Ann's answer. "Ten and ninepence." "Look at that!" cried the girl, lifting her hands. "I brought out but five and twopence, and I left no money for silk, and am in debt two quarterns. 'Melia was worse. Hers came to four and eleven. That surly old foreman says to me when he was paying, 'What d'ye leave for silk, Mary Ann Cross? There's two quarterns down.' 'I know there is, sir,' says I, 'but I don't leave nothing to-day.' He gave a grunt at that, the old file did." "And I suppose you spent your five shillings in some useless thing?" "I had to pay up at Bankes's, and the rest went in a new peach bonnet-ribbon." "Peach! You should have bought white, if you must be married." "Thank you, Charlotte! What next? Do you suppose I'm going to be married in that shabby old straw, that I've worn all the spring? Not if I know it." "Where's your money to come from for a new one? There will be other things wanted, more essential than a bonnet." "I'll have a new one if I go in trust for it," returned Mary Ann. "Tyrrett buys the ring. And it is of no use for you to preach, Charlotte; if you preach your tongue out, it'll do no good." Charlotte might, indeed, have preached a very long sermon before she could effect any change in the system of improvidence obtaining in Honey Fair. Neither Benjamin Tyrrett nor Mary Ann Cross was gifted with forethought, and they took no pains to acquire it. The marriage was carried out, and this was the happy day. Mrs. Cross gave an entertainment in honour of the event, at which the bride and bridegroom assisted--as the French say--with as many others as the kitchen would hold. Tea for the ladies, pipes and ale for the gentlemen, supper for all, with spirits-and-water handed round. How Mrs. Cross had contrived to go on so long without an _exposé_, she scarcely knew herself. The wonder was, that she had gone on at all. It took the energies of her life to patch up her embarrassments, and hide her difficulties from her husband. The evil day, however, was only delayed. It could not be averted. CHAPTER IX. AN EXPLOSION FOR MRS. CROSS.