It was Tony himself, accompanied by a small boy and a slightly larger
small girl.
"Hullo, sir! Yu'm come then. Do 'ee think you can put up wi' our little
shanty? Missis ought to ha' laid for 'ee in the front room. Us got a
little parlour, you know.--I be so wet as a drownded corpse, Missis!"
The two children stood on the other side of the table, staring at me as
if I were a wild beast behind bars which they scarcely trusted. "'Tis a
gen'leman!" exclaimed the girl.
"Coo'h!" the boy ejaculated.
Tony turned on them with make-believe anger: "Why don' 'ee git yer tay?
Don' 'ee know 'tis rude to stare?"
"Now then, you children," Mrs Widger continued in a strident voice,
buttering two hunks of bread with astonishing rapidity. "Take off thic
hat, Mabel. _Sit_ down, Jimmy."
"Coo'h! Jam!" said Jimmy. "Jam zide plaate, like the gen'leman, please,
Mam Widger."
"When you've eat that."