A. T. Quiller-Couch

“ To this tub she dragged the Cheap-Jack and sent him into it with a round souse. The black water splashed right and left over the crowd. Then, her wrath sated, Joan faced the rest, with hands on hips, and waited for them to come on.
Not a word had she spoken, from first to last: but stood now with hot cheeks and bosom heaving. Then, finding none to take up her challenge, she strode out through the folk, and I after her, with the mirror in my hand; while the Cheap-Jack picked himself out of the tub, whining, and the Astrologer wip'd his long white beard and soil'd robe. ”

“ But in this I was a moment too late; for just as I reached up my hand with the thirteen-pence, and the grinning fellow on the platform bent forward with his mirror, I heard a coarser jest, a rush in the crowd, and two heads go crack! together like eggs. 'Twas two of Joan's tormentors she had taken by the hair and served so: and dropping them the next instant had caught the Cheap-Jack's beard, as you might a bell-rope, and wrench'd him head-foremost off his stand, my thirteen-pence flying far and wide. ”

“ Some of these sayings were half-truth, no doubt: but the truthfullest word may be infelix. So noting a dark flush on Joan's cheek, I thought to end the scene by taking the Cheap-Jack's mirror on the spot, to stop his tongue, and then drawing her away. ”