"You won it?"
"What if I did? I only played for amoosement. What's two cents to a gentleman of fortune, with a big manshun up town?"
"It's the Tombs, he manes," said one of his late opponents, laughing.
"He can blow, he can," remarked the other.
But Ben couldn't stop to continue the conversation, as James Martin had already turned the corner of the street. It was observable that his gait already showed a slight unsteadiness, which he tried to remedy by walking with unusual erectness. The consequence of this was that he didn't keep fairly in view the occupants of the sidewalk, which led to his deliberately walking into rather a stout female, who was approaching in the opposite direction.
"Is it goin' to murther me ye are, you spalpeen?" she exclaimed, wrathfully, as soon as she could collect her breath. "Don't you know better than to run into a dacent woman in that way?"
"It was you run into me," said Martin, steadying himself with some difficulty after the collision.
"Hear him now," said the woman, looking about her to call attention to the calumny.
"I see how it is," said Martin; "you're drunk, ma'am, you can't walk straight."
This led to a voluble outburst from the irate woman, to which Ben listened with evident enjoyment.