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The statement made by Ruby as to her connection with Mrs Pipkin was quite true Ruby's father hadabehind hireatly resented this hter-in-law,--or to his son after the ainst the whole Pipkin race When he undertook the charge of Ruby he had reement that she should have no intercourse with the Pipkins This agree on the sly with her uncle'sat Islington When therefore she ran away fro to her aunt's house Mrs Pipkin was a poor woman, and could not offer a perood-natured, and came to terms Ruby was to be allowed to stay at any rate for a month, and was to work in the house for her bread But she o out occasionally Mrs Pipkin iht,' said Ruby If the lover hat he ought to be, had he not better coestion Mrs Pipkin thought that scandal ht in this way be avoided 'That's as it may be, by-and-by,' said Ruby

Then she told all the story of John Crumb;--how she hated John Cru should ave her own account of that night on which John Crumb and Mr Mixet ate their supper at the farrandfather had treated her because she would not have John Crumb Mrs Pipkin was a respectable woers if she could get theood advice Of course if she was 'dead-set' against John Cru woman should look to so much as a decent house over her head,--and victuals 'What's all the love in the world, Ruby, if a man can't do for you?' Ruby declared that she knew somebody who could do for her, and could do very well for her She knehat she was about, and wasn't going to be put off it Mrs Pipkin'se in her oay about her lover shewomen in these days did have, and would have, andThe world was being changed very fast Mrs Pipkin knew that as well as others And therefore when Ruby went to the theatre once and again,--by herself as far as Mrs Pipkin knew, but probably in coht, Mrs Pipkin said very little about it, attributing such novel circumstances to the altered condition of her country She had not been allowed to go to the theatre with a young irl,--but that had been in the earlier days of Queen Victoria, fifteen years ago, before the new dispensation had come Ruby had never yet told the na answered all inquiries by saying that she was right Sir Felix's naue hadher own affairs after her own fashion,--not altogether with satisfaction, but still without interruption; but now she knew that interference would corandfather's landlord The Squire would be after her, and then John Crumb would come, accompanied of course by Mr Mixet,--and after that, as she said to herself on retiring to the couch which she shared with two little Pipkins, 'the fat would be in the fire'