“Hassistant? Why, it’s so small that if there was to be a hassistant there’d be no room left for a customer! No, Joe; you’re to run the ’ole show. The chap what’s there now is leaving soon, you see.”
Mr. Dobb, anticipating the further curiosity of Mr. Tridge, went on to explain that the present tenant was in occupation of the premises on profit-sharing terms with the landlady. The stock and fixtures had recently come into Mrs. Jackson’s possession in the course of business, subsequent to the temporary employment of a broker’s man.
And now Mrs. Jackson, loth to lose her interest in the barbering profession, designed to procure yet another hairdresser to fill the place, on the same terms of partnership, of the dispossessed tenant.
“Of course,” said Mr. Dobb, “I ain’t supposed to know much about it. I only know what she’s told my missis in gossip, and I must say my missis is a good ’un at asking a few simple questions over a cup of tea without appearing nosey over it.”
“Well, and what do I do now?” asked Mr. Tridge. “Go up and ask ’er for the job?”
“Bless you, no!” was Horace’s baffling response. “Why, she’s filled it already, far as she’s concerned.”
“That’s the back of my neck, Joe, when you’ve finished cutting rashers out of it,” came Mr. Clark’s mild reminder.
“Well, ’Orace shouldn’t go giving me shocks like that!” indignantly exclaimed Mr. Tridge. “’Ere ’ave I been spending a ’ole week learning ’air-dressing in all its branches, and now, just when I’m perfect, ’e breaks the noos to me in a roundabout way that I’ve wasted my time for nothing!”
“I said as far as she was concerned, Joe,” remarked Mr. Dobb. “Not as far as I was concerned. That’s a very different matter. You just carry on and wait a day or two. And you, Sam Clark, you tell your boss that you’re rather hexpecting to ’ave another attack of colic soon, and stand by to take horders from me at any minute.”
Refusing to shed further enlightenment at this juncture, Mr. Dobb turned and left the “Jane Gladys” with rather a consciously Napoleonic stride.