“ ‘Oh, don’t tell me,’ said Tom, ‘I know him.’

“ ‘I am sure nobody who knows him, knows anything bad of him,’ said the widow, bridling up at the mysterious air with which Tom had spoken.

“ ‘Hem!’ said Tom Smart.

“The widow began to think it was high time to cry, so she took out her handkerchief, and inquired whether Tom wished to insult her, whether he thought it like a gentleman to take away the character of another gentleman behind his back, why, if he had got anything to say, he didn’t say it to the man, like a man, instead of terrifying a poor weak woman in that way; and so forth.