Explore "Lizerunt" by Arthur Morrison on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When Billy Chope married Lizerunt there was a small rejoicing. There was / no wedding-party; because it was considered that what there might be to / drink would be better in the family. Lizerunt's father was not, and her / mother felt no interest in the affair; not having seen her daughter for / a year, and happening, at the time, to have a month's engagement in / respect of a drunk and disorderly. So that there were but three of them; / and Billy Chope got exceedingly tipsy early in the day; and in the / evening his bride bawled a continual chorus, while his mother, / influenced by that unwonted quartern of gin the occasion sanctioned, / wept dismally over her boy, who was much too far gone to resent it.
His was the chief reason for rejoicing. For Lizerunt had always been / able to extract ten shillings a week from the pickle factory, and it was / to be presumed that as Lizer Chope her earning capacity would not / diminish; and the wages would make a very respectable addition to the / precarious revenue, depending on the mangle, that Billy extorted from / his mother. As for Lizer, she was married. That was the considerable / thing; for she was but a few months short of eighteen, and that, as you / know, is a little late.