"Thank you for that stoo," said Bindle as he tilted back his chair contentedly.
"You should thank G.o.d, not me," was the ungracious retort.
For a moment Bindle appeared to ponder the remark. "Some"ow," he said at length, "I don"t think I should like to thank Gawd for stewed-steak-an"-onions," and he drew his pipe from his pocket and began to charge it.
"Don"t start smoking," snapped Mrs. Bindle, rising from the chair and going over to the stove.
Bindle looked up with interested enquiry on his features.
"There"s an apple-pudding," continued Mrs. Bindle.
Bindle pocketed his pipe with a happy expression on his features.
"Lizzie," he said, ""ow could you treat me like this?"
"What"s the matter now?" demanded Mrs. Bindle.
"An apple-puddin" a-waitin" to be eaten, an" you lettin" me waste time a-talkin" about "Earty"s looks. It ain"t kind of you, Lizzie, it ain"t really."
Mrs. Bindle"s sole response was a series of bangs, as she proceeded to turn out the apple-pudding.
Bindle ate and ate generously. When he had finished he pushed the plate from him and once more produced his pipe from his pocket.
"Mrs. B.," he said, "you may be a Christian; but you"re a d.a.m.n fine cook."
"Don"t use such language to me," was the response, uttered a little less ungraciously than her previous remarks.
"It"s all right, Mrs. B., don"t you worry, they ain"t a-goin" to charge that there "d.a.m.n" up against you. You"re too nervous about the devil, you are," Bindle struck a match and sucked at his pipe.
"He"s going to open another shop," said Mrs. Bindle.
"Who, the devil?" enquired Bindle in surprise.
"It"s going to be in Putney High Street," continued Mrs. Bindle, ignoring Bindle"s remark.
Bindle looked up at her with genuine puzzlement on his features.
"Putney "Igh Street used to be a pretty "ot place at night before the war," he remarked; "it ain"t exactly cool now; but I never thought o"
the devil openin" a shop there."
"I said Mr. Hearty," retorted Mrs. Bindle angrily.
"Oh! "Earty," said Bindle contemptuously. ""Earty"d open anythink except "is "eart, or a barrel of apples "e"s sellin", knowin" them to be rotten. Wot"s "e want to open another shop for? "E"s got two already, ain"t "e?"
"Why haven"t you got on?" stormed Mrs. Bindle inconsequently. "Why haven"t you got three shops?"
"Well!" continued Bindle, "I might "ave done so, but wot should I sell in "em?"
"You never got on, you lorst every job you ever got. You"d "ave lorst me long ago if----"
"No," remarked Bindle with solemn conviction as he rose and took his cap from behind the door. "You ain"t the sort o" woman wot"s lorst, Mrs. B., you"re one o" them wot"s found, like the little lamb that Ole Woe-and-Whiskers talked about when I went to chapel with you that night. S"long."
The news about Mr. Hearty"s third venture in the greengrocery trade occupied Bindle"s mind to the exclusion of all else as he walked in the direction of Chelsea to call upon Dr. Richard Little, whom he had met in connection with the Temperance Fete fiasco at Barton Bridge. He winked at only three girls and pa.s.sed two remarks to carmen, and one to a bus-conductor, who was holding on rather unnecessarily to the arm of a pretty girl.
He found d.i.c.k Little at home and with him his brother Tom, and "Guggers," now a captain in the Gordons.
"Hullo! Here"s J.B., gug-gug-good," cried Guggers, hurling his fourteen stone towards the diminutive visitor.
"Blessed if it ain"t ole Spit-and-Speak in petticoats," cried Bindle.
"I"m glad to see you, sir, that I am," and he shook Guggers warmly by the hand.
Guggers, as he was known at Oxford on account of his inability to p.r.o.nounce a "G" without a preliminary "gug-gug," had taken a prominent part in the Oxford rag, when Bindle posed as the millionaire uncle of an unpopular undergraduate.
Bindle had christened him Spit-and-Speak owing to Gugger"s habit of salivating his words.
When the men were seated, and Bindle was puffing furiously at a big cigar, he explained the cause of his visit.
"I ain"t "appy, sir," he said to d.i.c.k Little, "and although the "ymn says "ere we suffer grief an" woe," it don"t say we got to suffer grief an" woe an" "Earty, altogether."
"What"s up, J.B.?" enquired d.i.c.k Little.
"Well, if the truth"s got to be told, sir, I got "Earty in the throat."
"Got what?" enquired Tom Little, grinning.
""Earty, my brother-in-law, "Earty. I "ad "im thrust down my throat to-night with stewed-steak-and-onions an" apple-puddin". The stewed-steak and the puddin" slipped down all right; but "Earty stuck."
"What"s he been up to now?" enquired d.i.c.k Little.
""E"s goin" to open another shop in Putney "Igh Street, that"s number three. "Earty with two shops give me "ell; but with three shops it"ll be "ell and blazes."
"Gug-gug-gave you h.e.l.l?" interrogated Guggers.
"Mrs. B.," explained Bindle laconically. Then after a pause he added, "No matter wot"s wrong at "ome, if the pipes burst through frost, or the butcher"s late with the meat, or if it"s a sixpenny milkman instead of a fivepenny milkman, Mrs. B. always seems to think it"s through me not being like "Earty, as if any man "ud be like "Earty wot could be like somethink else, even if it was a conchie. No," continued Bindle, "somethink"s got to be done. That"s why I come round this evenin"."
"Can"t we gug-gug-get up a rag?" enquired Guggers. "If I gug-gug-go back to France without a rag we shall never beat the Huns."
For a few minutes the four men continued to smoke, d.i.c.k Little meditatively, Bindle furiously. It was Bindle who broke the silence.
"You may think I got a down on "Earty, sir?" he said, addressing d.i.c.k Little. "Well, p"rap"s I "ave: but "Eaven"s sometimes a little late in punishin" people, an" I ain"t above lendin" an "and. "Earty"s afraid o" me because "e"s afraid of wot I may say, knowin" wot I know."
With this enigmatical utterance, Bindle buried his face in the tankard that was always kept for him at d.i.c.k Little"s flat.
"We might of course celebrate the occasion," murmured d.i.c.k Little meditatively.
"Gug-gug-great Scott!" cried Guggers. "We will! Gug-gug-good old d.i.c.k!" He brought a heavy hand down on d.i.c.k Little"s shoulder blade.
"Out with it!"
For the next hour the four men conferred together, and by the time Bindle found it necessary to return to his "little grey "ome in the west," the success of Mr. Hearty"s third shop was a.s.sured, that is its advertis.e.m.e.nt was a.s.sured.