“Well, see her, and think over it—you’ve got plenty of time to do it in—and get your things ready by dark. Don’t be frightened. I’ve shifted mother and an aunt and two married sisters out of worse fixes than yours. I’ll be round after dark, and bring a push to lend a hand. They’re decent coves.”
“But I can’t expect your friend to shift me for nothing. I told you I haven’t got a—-”
“Mrs Aspinall, I ain’t that sort of a bloke, neither is my chum, and neither is the other fellows—’relse they wouldn’t be friends of mine. Will you promise, Mrs Aspinall?”
“I’m afraid—I—I’d like to keep my few things now. I’ve kept them so long. It’s hard to lose my few bits of things—I wouldn’t care so much if I could keep the ironin’ table.”
“So you could, by law—it’s necessary to your living, but it would cost more’n the table. Now, don’t be soft, Mrs Aspinall. You’ll have the bailiff in any day, and be turned out in the end without a rag. The law knows no ‘necessary.’ You want your furniture more’n the landlord does. He can’t do nothin’. You can trust it all to me.... I knowed Arvie.... Will you do it?”
“Yes, I will.”
At about eight o’clock that evening there came a mysterious knock at Mrs Aspinall’s door. She opened, and there stood Bill. His attitude was business-like, and his manner very impressive. Three other boys stood along by the window, with their backs to the wall, deeply interested in the emptying of burnt cigarette-ends into a piece of newspaper laid in the crown of one of their hats, and a fourth stood a little way along the kerb casually rolling a cigarette, and keeping a quiet eye out for suspicious appearances. They were of different makes and sizes, but there seemed an undefined similarity between them.
“This is my push, Mrs Aspinall,” said Bill; “at least,” he added apologetically, “it’s part of ’em. Here, you chaps, this is Mrs Aspinall, what I told you about.”
They elbowed the wall back, rubbed their heads with their hats, shuffled round, and seemed to take a vacant sort of interest in abstract objects, such as the pavement, the gas-lamp, and neighbouring doors and windows.
“Got the things ready?” asked Bill.