'Have I offended you, Clem?'
'Offended, indeed As if I cared what you say!'
'Do you care what I think?'
'Not I!'
'That means you do. Say, Clem, just come here; I've something to
tell you.'
'You're a nuisance. Let me get on with my work, can't you?'
'No, I can't. You just come here. You'd better not give me the
trouble of fetching you!'
The girl obeyed him. Her cheeks were very hot, and the danger-signal
was flashing in her eyes. Ten minutes later she went upstairs, and
had a vivacious dialogue of whispers with Mrs. Peckover.
CHAPTER XV
SUNLIGHT IN DREARY PLACES
Among the by-ways of Clerkenwell you might, with some difficulty,
have discovered an establishment known in its neighbourhood as
'Whitehead's.' It was an artificial-flower factory, and the rooms of
which it consisted were only to be reached by traversing a
timber-yard, and then mounting a wooden staircase outside a
saw-mill. Here at busy seasons worked some threescore women and
girls, who, owing to the nature of their occupation, were spoken of
by the jocose youth of the locality as 'Whitehead's pastepots.'
Naturally they varied much in age and aspect.
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