“Oh! no fear of that,” returned her husband, “but I dunno as we want a boarder now. Five years ago I ’adn’t got my big rise——”
“Oh, no, father; what would the neighbours think of us if we started to take boarders again?” protested Blanche.
“It wouldn’t look well,” agreed Mrs Gosling.
“Jus’ what I was thinking,” said the head of the house. “’Owever, there’s no ’arm in payin’ us a friendly visit.”
“O’ course not,” said Mrs Gosling, “though I do think it odd ’e shouldn’t ’ave written to me in the first place.
“He’s dotty!” said Blanche.
Gosling shook his head. “Not by a very long chalk ’e ain’t,” was his firm pronouncement....
“Well, girls, what about bed?” asked Mrs Gosling, putting away the “bit of mending” she had been engaged upon.
Gosling yawned again, stretched himself, and rose grunting to his feet. “I’m about ready for my bed,” he remarked, and after another yawn he started his nightly round of inspection.
When he returned to the sitting-room the others were all ready to retire. Gosling kissed his daughters, and the two girls and their mother went upstairs. Gosling carefully took off the larger pieces of coal from the fire and put them under the grate, rolled up the hearthrug, saw that the window was securely fastened, extinguished the lamp and followed his “womenfolk.”