If I don't have the three weeks she owes before to-morrow, dead or alive, she shall go to the workhouse!" This time I managed to push by him, and get to my own room, and lock the door in his face.

As soon as I was alone I fell into a breathless, suffocating fit of crying that seemed to be shaking me to pieces.

But there was no good and no help in tears; I did my best to calm myself after a little while, and tried to think who I should run to for help and protection.
The doctor was the first friend I thought of; but I knew he was always out seeing his patients of an afternoon.

The beadle was the next person who came into my head.

He had the look of being a very dignified, unapproachable kind of man when he came about the inquest; but he talked to me a little then, and said I was a good girl, and seemed, I really thought, to pity me.