He put the crystallised apricot in his mouth, and Patsy, with the walnut in his hand, sat watching his treasures vanishing.
“You’re not eatin’ your nuts,” said Mr Cogan, as he swallowed the last of the chocolates and set to on the nuts.
“What is it you’re afther?” said Patsy, whose appetite had completely disappeared. “What’s made you come to-night at all, at all?”
Mr Cogan cracked a walnut and devoured the contents.
“And what’s this?” said he, taking up the cracker, without replying to Patsy’s very pertinent question.
“Thims is crackers,” replied Patsy in a half-hearted voice. “Is it Paddy Murphy’s job you’re afther, or what?”
“And who’s the girl, may I ax?” went on Mr Cogan, examining Miss Studholme with a critical and approving eye.
“I dunno,” replied Patsy. “Sure, it’s moidhered I am! What is it you’re afther, Con Cogan?”
“Is it to eat, or what?” asked Mr Cogan, still disregarding Patsy, and touching the gelatine cover with his tongue.
“Stop, or it’s pizened you’ll be,” said Patsy; “it’s not for eatin’. You catch hould of it at both ends, same as you have it now, and pull; but don’t be doin’ it, or——”