'I suppose you give one or other a bit of encouragement now and
then, just to make a fool of him, eh?'
'Course I do. There was Bob Hewett; he used to lodge here, but that
was after your time. I kep' him off an' on till he couldn't bear it
no longer; then he went an' married a common slut of a thing, just
because he thought it 'ud make me mad. Ha, ha! I believe he'd give
her poison an' risk it any day, if only I promised to marry him
afterwards. Then there was a feller called Jeck Bartley. I set him
an' Bob fightin' one Bank-holiday--you should a' seen 'em go at
it! Jack went an' got married a year ago to a girl called Suke
Jollop; her mother forced him. How I did laugh! Last Christmas Day
they smashed up their 'ome an' threw the bits out into the street.
Jack got one of his eyes knocked out--I thought I should a' died
o' laughin' when I saw him next mornin'.'
The hearer became uproarious in merriment.
'Tell you what it is, Clem,' he cried, 'you're something like a
girl! Darn me if I don't like you! I say, I wonder what my
daughter's grown up? Like her mother, I suppose. You an' she was
sort of sisters, wasn't you?'
He observed her closely.
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