Well, by-and-by London was mentioned, and then it was Harry’s turn. He was by no means sorry to have something to say.
“Shall I describe to you, Miss Winslow,” he said, “some of the wild sights of Whitechapel?”
“Is it a dreadfully wild place, Mr Brown?”
“It is rather; eh, Johnnie?”
“I don’t know much about it, Harry.”
“Well, there are slums near by there, miss, that no man with a black coat and an umbrella dare enter in daylight owing to the wild beasts. Then there are peelers.”
“What are peelers? Monkeys?”
“Yes, miss; they are a sort of monkeys—blue monkeys—and carry sticks same as the real African ourang-outangs do. And can’t they use them too!”
“Are they very ugly?”
“Awful, and venomous too; and at night they have one eye that shines in the dark like a wild cat’s, and you’ve got to stand clear when that eye’s on you.”