I could have torn my hair with rage and vexation.
I seized the tongs, and was kneeling down and vigorously pushing them up the chimney, to ascertain the cause of this last misfortune, when a loud double-knock at the door startled me nearly out of my senses.

I had never realised what I was in for till now! Horror of horrors! Who was to open the door, Mrs Nash, or I?
We had never settled that.

And while I stood trembling amid my smoke and eel- pie and half-boiled eggs, the knock was repeated--this time so long and loud that it must have been heard all over the square.

I could hear voices and laughter outside.

Some one asked, "Is this the shop ?" and another voice said, "Don't see his name on the door." Then, terrified lest they should perpetrate another solo on the knocker, I rushed out and opened the door myself, just as Mrs Nash, with her face scarlet and her sleeves tucked up above the elbows, also appeared in the passage.
They were all there; they had come down in a body.