Part 12 (2/2)

”Why! where did you get to?” asked Pierce.

He conveyed that he had been ”fair round the town.” ”With a Nactor chap, I know.”

”One can't _always_ be living like a curit,” he said.

”No fear,” said Pierce, trying to play up to him.

But Kipps had the top place in that conversation.

”My Lor'!” said Kipps, when Pierce had gone, ”but wasn't my mouth and 'ed bad this morning before I 'ad a pick-me-up!”

”Whad jer 'ave?”

”Anchovy on 'ot b.u.t.tered toast. It's the very best pick-me-up there is.

You trust me, Rodgers. I never take no other and I don't advise you to.

See?”

And when pressed for further particulars, he said again he had been ”fair all _round_ the town, with a Nactor chap” he knew. They asked curiously all he had done and he said, ”Well, what do _you_ think?” And when they pressed for still further details he said there were things little boys ought not to know and laughed darkly and found them some huckaback to roll.

And in this manner for a s.p.a.ce did Kipps fend off the contemplation of the ”key of the street” that Shalford had presented him.

--3

This sort of thing was all very well when junior apprentices were about, but when Kipps was alone with himself it served him not at all. He was uncomfortable inside and his skin was uncomfortable, and Head and Mouth palliated perhaps, but certainly not cured, were still with him. He felt, to tell the truth, nasty and dirty and extremely disgusted with himself. To work was dreadful and to stand still and think still more dreadful. His patched knee reproached him. These were the second best of his three pairs of trousers, and they had cost him thirteen and sixpence. Practically ruined they were. His dusting pair was unfit for shop and he would have to degrade his best. When he was under inspection he affected the slouch of a desperado, but directly he found himself alone, this pa.s.sed insensibly into the droop.

The financial aspect of things grew large before him. His whole capital in the world was the sum of five pounds in the Post Office Savings Bank and four and sixpence cash. Besides there would be two months' screw.

His little tin box upstairs was no longer big enough for his belongings; he would have to buy another, let alone that it was not calculated to make a good impression in a new ”crib.” Then there would be paper and stamps needed in some abundance for answering advertis.e.m.e.nts and railway fares when he went ”crib hunting.” He would have to write letters, and he never wrote letters. There was spelling for example to consider.

Probably if nothing turned up before his month was up he would have to go home to his Uncle and Aunt.

How would they take it?...

For the present at any rate he resolved not to write to them.

Such disagreeable things as this it was that lurked below the fair surface of Kipps' a.s.sertion, ”I've been wanting a chance. If 'e 'adn't swapped me, I should very likely 'ave swapped _'im_.”

In the perplexed privacies of his own mind he could not understand how everything had happened. He had been the Victim of Fate, or at least of one as inexorable--Chitterlow. He tried to recall the successive steps that had culminated so disastrously. They were difficult to recall....

Buggins that night abounded in counsel and reminiscence.

”Curious thing,” said Buggins, ”but every time I've had the swap I've never believed I should get another Crib--never. But I have,” said Buggins. ”Always. So don't lose heart, whatever you do....

”Whatever you do,” said Buggins, ”keep hold of your collars and cuffs--s.h.i.+rts if you can, but collars anyhow. Spout them last. And anyhow, it's summer!--you won't want your coat.... You got a good umbrella....

<script>