Ah well, you could say what you liked, the good old times were gone for ever.

Once the street was like a play, and now...Her thoughts were disturbed again by a terrific noise in the terrace opposite.

The door of a cottage flew open, and a woman ran screaming into the road, followed by her husband with a tomahawk.

But as the door slammed behind him, he suddenly changed his mind and, turning back, hammered on the closed door with frantic rage, calling on someone within to come out and be killed.
Then, as he grew tired of trying to get in, he remembered his wife, but she had disappeared.
The crowd gathered about, glad of a diversion, and the news travelled across the street to Mrs Yabsley on her veranda.

Doughy the baker, stepping down unexpectedly from the Woolpack to borrow a shilling from his wife, had found her drinking beer in the kitchen with Happy Jack.
And while Doughy was hammering on the front door, Happy Jack had slipped out at the back, and was watching Doughy's antics over the shoulders of his pals.