'I said "yet."'
'But then some day I'll know, won't I? So I'll live in 'opes o' that some day. An' some day,' this queer boy went on, 'some day summat helse be agoin' to 'appen. Ye know the song, Miss Lotty, "'E never told 'is love"? Well, that's me. An' I'm goin' to be honest an' straight with ye as ever was. An' till the day w'en by savin' an' savin' I makes a bit o' money, an' is old enough to lead ye to the halter, I'm goin' to be a helder brother to ye. So 'elp me, Billy-o.'
Who Billy-o was it would be difficult to say; but Chops's adjuration certainly sounded a strong one. But evidently the lad liked Lotty very much, and it would be wrong to laugh at love even in the crude.
Chops was silent for a time.
Wallace was lying down perilously close to the edge of the cliff—so close, indeed, that Lotty feared to call him lest he should miss his foothold and tumble over to destruction. But it was only the dog's way, and he was perfectly safe.
But Lotty's newly constituted elder brother broke the silence at last.
'Miss Lotty,' he said, 'Chops, yer friend, will neither give sleep to 'is heyes nor slumber to 'is heyelids until 'e 'as prayed hover an' thought hall about the scheme for runnin' away. If so be,' he added, 'that it seems best for ye, Chops will tell ye to-morrer mornin' has ever was. No more at present from yours truly till death do us part—Chops junior.'
Wallace had drawn away from the cliff, much to Lotty's relief, and come forward as if to listen to the conversation.
'Oh, Chops, by the way,' said the girl, 'you said Chops junior. I've been often going to ask you had you ever, ever a father, Chops?'
'Wot then, Miss Lotty? Think I 'ad two mothers hinstead? Or that baby Chops floated ashore on a 'urdle? My father, Miss Lotty, is a jobbin' gardener, as does hodd jobs in 'Ighgate 'Eath, as good a man, t'old pa'son says, has hever drew the breath o' life on a Monday mornin'.'