“Then it is the lady as formerly objected?” said Wegg.

“Sir,” returned Venus with dignity, “I accept the altered phrase. It is the lady as formerly objected.”

“When is it to come off?” asked Silas.

“ Mr. Wegg,” said Venus, with another flush. “I cannot permit it to be put in the form of a fight. I must temperately but firmly call upon you, sir, to amend that question.”

“When is the lady,” Wegg reluctantly demanded, constraining his ill temper in remembrance of the partnership and its stock in trade, “a going to give her ’and where she has already given her ’art?”