The burst of triumph in which she thanks him does not escape the notice of the single buffer of an easy temper living idly on his means. He glances at her; clasps his hands behind him, as the wont of such buffers is; and lounges along the echoing Precincts at her side.
“Or,” he suggests, with a backward hitch of his head, “you can go up at once to Mr. Jasper’s rooms there.”
The woman eyes him with a cunning smile, and shakes her head.
“O! you don’t want to speak to him?”
She repeats her dumb reply, and forms with her lips a soundless “No.”
“You can admire him at a distance three times a day, whenever you like. It’s a long way to come for that, though.”
The woman looks up quickly. If Mr. Datchery thinks she is to be so induced to declare where she comes from, he is of a much easier temper than she is. But she acquits him of such an artful thought, as he lounges along, like the chartered bore of the city, with his uncovered gray hair blowing about, and his purposeless hands rattling the loose money in the pockets of his trousers.
The chink of the money has an attraction for her greedy ears. “Wouldn’t you help me to pay for my traveller’s lodging, dear gentleman, and to pay my way along? I am a poor soul, I am indeed, and troubled with a grievous cough.”
“You know the travellers’ lodging, I perceive, and are making directly for it,” is Mr. Datchery’s bland comment, still rattling his loose money. “Been here often, my good woman?”
“Once in all my life.”