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But we must go back a little in time to that period when the postal jaws were about to open for the reception of the evening mail. Ever since Miss Lillycrop's visit to the abode of Solomon Flint, she had felt an increasing desire to see the inside and the working of that mighty engine of State about which she had heard so much.
She handed her friend the newspaper which recounted the "gallant rescue." Miss Lillycrop's countenance was a study which cannot be described. The same may be said of her bonnet. When she came to the name of Aspel her eyeballs became circular, and her eyebrows apparently attempted to reach the roots of her hair.
He led her and May to the inside the throat, as it were of those postal jaws, the exterior aspect of which we have already described. On the way thither they had to pass through part of the great letter-sorting hall. It seemed to Miss Lillycrop's excited imagination as if she had been suddenly plunged over head and ears into a very ocean of letters.
Of course, many of these, such as live animals, being prohibited articles, were stopped and sent to the Returned Letter Office, but were restored, on application, to the senders." Observing Miss Lillycrop's surprised expression of face, the old woman's curiosity was roused. "What's he haverin' aboot, my dear?" she asked of May.
Miss Stivergill put the dressing-table a little to one side, and placed a ewer of water on it. At that moment the dining-room window was heard to open slowly but distinctly. Miss Stivergill threw up the bedroom window. The marrow in Miss Lillycrop's spine froze. Mr Bones started and looked up in surprise.
"Well then, I'll send it," said Aspel, closing the letter; "do you know where I can post it?" "Not I. Never was here before. I've only a vague idea of how I got here, and mustn't go far with you lest I lose myself." At that moment Miss Lillycrop's door opened and little Tottie issued forth. "Ah! she will help us. D'you know where the Post-Office is, Tottie?"
Few persons except the initiated are fully alive to the immense importance of checking fire at its commencement. The smoke, although not dense enough to attract the attention of people outside, was sufficiently so to make those inside commence an anxious search, when they should have sent at once for the fire-engine. Three families occupied the tenement. Miss Lillycrop's portion was at the top.
He stumbled over them, grasped both in his strong arms, and bore them to the staircase. It was by that time a roaring furnace. His power of retaining breath was exhausted. In desperation he turned sharp to the right, and dashed in Miss Lillycrop's drawing-room door, just as the fire-escape performed the same feat on one of the windows. The gush of air drove back the smoke for one moment.
The firemen battled there during the greater part of that night, and finally gained the victory; but, before this happy consummation was attained, poor Miss Lillycrop's home was gutted and her little property reduced to ashes. In these circumstances she and her little maid found a friend in need in Miss Stivergill, and an asylum in Rosebud Cottage.
A strong mind is as admirable in woman as in man. It is only when woman indicates the strength of her mind by unfeminine self-assertion that we shrink from her in alarm. Miss Lillycrop's bosom friend was a warm-hearted, charitable, generous, hard-featured, square-shouldered, deep-chested, large-boned lady of middle age and quick temper.
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