Ernie caught the words "Third Floor."
Instantly he emerged from his deeps, his intellect alert, paramount, and defensive.
Don John continued caressingly, his cheek bulging with cheese, and a clasp-knife in his hand.
"Pluddy mug!" he jeered. "Thinks they're for him. They're for de toffs on de top—not for you! You're unter-tog. Nozzing for unter-tog in this world only de crumbs that don't fall from de rich man's table. De girls are for de Chairman Jews. They can buy em. Can you?—Nice English girls are cheap."
CHAPTER XXXI
THE RIDE ON THE BUS
The Thursday following his great experience, Ernie went as usual to the Redoubt which was the terminus of the bus that ran to Billing's Corner.
He was early; and there was as yet only one passenger on the roof, a young woman simply dressed in black, her bare throat girt about with yellow amber, and wearing a felt hat of terra-cotta colour.
She was sitting on the front seat.
The large and graceful indolence of her pose gave him pause.