Part 37 (1/2)

”There was a girl kept a fruit-stall just by the harbor,” said Mrs.

Gannett, ”and on this evening, on the strength of having bought three-penny-worth of green figs, you put your arm round her waist and tried to kiss her, and her sweetheart, who was standing close by, tried to stab you. The parrot said that you were in such a state of terror that you jumped into the harbour and were nearly drowned.”

Mr. Gannett having loaded his pipe lit it slowly and carefully, and with tidy precision got up and deposited the match in the fireplace.

”It used to frighten me so with its stories that I hardly knew what to do with myself,” continued Mrs. Gannett. ”When you were at Suez----”

The engineer waved his hand imperiously.

”That's enough,” he said stiffly.

”I'm sure I don't want to have to repeat what it told me about Suez,”

said his wife. ”I thought you'd like to hear it, that's all.”

”Not at all,” said the engineer, puffing at his pipe. ”Not at all.”

”But you see why I got rid of the bird, don't you?” said Mrs. Gannett.

”If it had told you untruths about me, _you_ would have believed them, wouldn't you?”

Mr. Gannett took his pipe from his mouth and took his wife in his extended arms. ”No, my dear,” he said brokenly, ”no more than you believe all this stuff about me.”

”And I did quite right to sell it, didn't I, Jem?”

”Quite right,” said Mr. Gannett with a great a.s.sumption of heartiness.

”Best thing to do with it.”

”You haven't heard the worst yet,” said Mrs. Gannett. ”When you were at Suez----”

Mr. Gannett consigned Suez to its only rival, and thumping the table with his clenched fist, forbade his wife to mention the word again, and desired her to prepare supper.

Not until he heard his wife moving about in the kitchen below did he relax the severity of his countenance. Then his expression changed to one of extreme anxiety, and he restlessly paced the room seeking for light. It came suddenly.

”Jenkins,” he gasped, ”Jenkins and Mrs. Cluffins, and I was going to tell Cluffins about him writing to his wife, I expect he knows the letter by heart.”

MONEY-CHANGERS

”'Tain't no use waiting any longer,” said Hairy Pilchard, looking over the side of the brig towards the Tower stairs. ”'E's either waiting for the money or else 'e's a spending of it. Who's coming ash.o.r.e?”

”Give 'im another five minutes, Harry,” said another seaman persuasively; ”it 'ud be uncommon 'ard on 'im if 'e come aboard and then 'ad to go an' get another s.h.i.+p's crew to 'elp 'im celebrate it.”

”'Ard on us, too,” said the cook honestly. ”There he is!”

The other glanced up at a figure waving to them from the stairs. ”'E wants the boat,” he said, moving aft.

”No 'e don't, Steve,” piped the boy. ”'E's waving you not to. He's coming in the waterman's skiff.”

”Ha! same old tale,” said the seaman wisely. ”Chap comes in for a bit o' money and begins to waste it directly. There's threepence gone; clean chucked away. Look at 'im. Just look at 'im!”