JESSIE'S ACQUAINTANCE MADE. 53

CHAPTER IV.
JESSIE'S ACQUAINTANCE MADE.

We must now pay a visit to the house of a clog
and patten-maker, and, without using any ceremony,
enter the little parlour, which is but very humbly
furnished, with its home-made listing carpet hardly
covering its brick floor, and its furniture of blue and
white check. In the middle of the room stands a
round table, covered with a coarse huckaback “table-
cloth, on which plates, knives and forks, and an
earthenware salt-cellar, with bread and cheese, give
intimation that supper is at hand. The homely
furniture, however, did not cause a moment's
uneasiness to the persons who were there, and
whom we may as well introduce to the reader.
First of all, a little old woman, in a night-cap not
remarkably clean, and a pink bed-gown, who sat
bending over the little fire-place set in Dutch tile,
cooking on the fire a quantity of tripe, in a sauce-
pan rather too small for the purpose, while within
the fender stood dishes and plates to warm. This
old woman, known in the theatrical corps as
Mrs. Bellamy, though she never acted, seemed so
absorbed by her occupation as to take no notice
whatever of a young couple who sat together, in
very amicable proximity, on the sofa. These were
Jessie Bannerman, the fair prima donna of the com-
pany, and our acquaintance, Williams, who was now
paying by no means his first visit to the inmates
of the patten-maker’s parlour. Williams was very
handsomely dressed in his Sunday clothes, for it
was Sunday evening; whilst the young lady, a

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