'So you _will_ keep doin' that foolish thing! Very well, then, I shall have to speak to your father about it; I'm not goin' to see you make yourself ill and do nothing to prevent you.' Amy, now a girl of eleven, affected much indignation.
'Why, I haven't touched a drop, Mrs.Eagles!' 'Now, now, now, now, now! Why, your lips are shrivelled up like a bit of o' dried orange-peel! You're a silly girl, that's what you are!' Of late Amy Hewett had become the victim of a singular propensity; whenever she could obtain vinegar, she drank it as a toper does spirits.

Inadequate nourishment, and especially an unsatisfied palate, frequently have this result in female children among the poor; it is an anticipation of what will befall them as soon as they find their way to the publichouse.
Having administered a scolding, Mrs.Eagles went into the room which she and her husband occupied.

It was so encumbered with furniture that not more than eight or ten square feet of floor can have been available for movement.

On the bed sat Mr.Eagles, a spare, large-headed, ugly, but very thoughtful-looking man; he and Sidney Kirkwood had been acquaintances and fellow-workmen for some years, but no close intimacy had arisen between them, owing to the difference of their tastes and views.

Eagles was absorbed in the study of a certain branch of political statistics; the enthusiasm of his life was Financial Reform.
Every budget presented to Parliament he criticised with extraordinary thoroughness, and, in fact, with an acumen which would have made him no inefficient auxiliary of the Chancellor himself.