“Ay, he is, missus.”
“And I love him a’ready.”
“Well, I won’t go so far as love him, ’cause I don’t like boys, but I like him because he’s such a good, happy-looking little chap, and how anyone as calls himself a man could have—”
“Yes, yes, you’ve said that before, Joe,” whispered his wife pettishly. “Tell me what you’d say if you warn’t a corporal.”
“Why, I’d say nothing,” said Joe.
“Oh, how can you be so stupid as to go on like that! I thought you’d got something sensible in your head.”
“So I have,” said Joe gruffly, “on’y you’re in such a hurry. I should say nothing to nobody, and go on just as if he warn’t here.”
“Oh, Joe, dear, would you?”
“Yes, that’s what I should say. We could manage right enough, and if at last the Colonel should come with: ‘Hallo there! What boy’s that?’—why, we could tell him then, and if he said: ‘Send him away’—”
“Yes, and what then, Joe?” cried Mrs Corporal excitedly.