Next door to the doctor lived another person, who kept a small tobacconist's shop, which was a favourite resort of the pensioners and other poor people. She was an Irishwoman, with a strong accent of her country--a widow by her own account. Who her husband had been was not satisfactorily known: if the question was put, she always evaded it as much as possible. All she said was, that his name was St. Felix, and that he had been of no profession. She was about twenty-two or twenty-three, very handsome, and very pleasing in her manners, which was perhaps one cause of the surmises and scandal which were continually afloat. Some said that her husband was still alive; others, that he had been transported for seven years; and many (and among them my mother) declared that she could not produce her "marriage lines." Indeed, there was no end to ill-natured reports, as always will be the case when men are so unfortunate as to have a reputation, or women so unfortunate as to be pretty. But the widow appeared to be indifferent to what people said: she was always lively and cheerful, and a great favourite with the men, whatever she may have been with the women. Doctor Tadpole had courted her ever since she had settled at Greenwich: they were the best of friends, but the doctor's suit did not appear to advance. Nevertheless, the doctor seldom passed a day without paying her a visit, and she was very gracious to him. Although she sold every variety of tobacco, she would not permit people to smoke, and had no seats either in the shop or at the door--but to this rule an exception was made in favour of the doctor. He seldom failed to be there every evening; and, although she would not allow him a chair, she permitted him to remain standing at the counter and smoke his cigar while they conversed. It was this indulgence which occasioned people to think that she would marry the doctor; but at last they got tired of waiting, and it became a sort of proverb in Fisher's Alley and its precincts, when things were put off to an indefinite period, to say, "Yes, that will be done when the widow marries the doctor." One evening, Ben had sent me to fill his tobacco--box at Mrs St. Felix's, and when I went in, I found the doctor in her shop. "Well, Master Tom Saunders or Mr Poor Jack," said the widow, "what may your pleasure be?" "Pigtail," said I, putting down the penny. "Is it for your father, Jack, for report tells me that he's in want of it?" "No," replied I, "it's for old Ben--father's a long way from this, I expect." "And do you intend to follow him, Jack? It's my opinion you'll be the very revarse of a good sailor if you cruise bottom up as you did on your first voyage." "It's not the pleasantest way of sailing, is it, Jack?" observed the doctor. "Not in winter-time," replied I. The widow measured the length of the pigtail, as milliners do tape, from the tip of the finger to the knuckle, and cut it off.