You know that copper coal-scuttle you sent in yesterday ?" "Well, isn't it a beauty ?--a real Georgian piece!" cried Meadows, indignantly.
"I dare say it is.

But it has to be cleaned.

When it arrived Jane came to see me in this room, shut the door, and put her back against it 'There's another of them beastly copper coal-scuttles come!' You should have seen her eyes blazing.

'And I should like to know, ma'am, who's going to clean it--'cos I can't.' And I just had to promise her it might go dirty." "Lazy minx!" said Meadows, good-humouredly, with his mouth full of tea-cake.

"At last I have something good to look at in this room." He turned his eyes caressingly towards the new coal-scuttle.