Why
I haven't seen her not these three weeks.'
'It's a ---- lie!' Clem's epithet was too vigorous for reproduction.
'Sukey Jollop saw you with her down by the meat-market, an' Jeck
Bartley saw you too.'
'Jeck did?' He laughed with obstreperous scorn. 'Why, Jeck's gone to
Homerton to his mother till Saturday night. Don't be such a bloomin'
fool! Just because Suke Jollop's dead nuts on me, an' I won't have
nothin' to say to her, she goes tellin' these bloomin' lies. When I
see her next, I'll make her go down on her marrow-bones an' beg my
pardon. See if I don't just!'
There was an engaging frankness in Bob's way of defending himself
which evidently impressed Miss Peckover, though it did not
immediately soothe her irritation. She put her arms a-kimbo, and
examined him with a steady suspicion which would have disconcerted
most young men. Bob, however, only laughed more heartily. The scene
was prolonged. Bob had no recourse to tenderness to dismiss the
girl's jealousy. His self-conceit was supreme, and had always stood
him in such stead with the young ladies who, to use his own
expression, were 'dead nuts on him,' that his love-making, under
whatever circumstances, always took the form of genial banter _de
haut en bas_.
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