“It might ’a’ bin a minute or two?”
“No longer?”
“Well, sir, it’s ’ard for me to say, especially after bein’ away for a change of ’ealth, so to speak.”
“Did not the lady speak or move in any manner?”
“Not so far as I know, sir.”
“And do you mean to tell me that, although you had been drinking, you were not astonished at the whole business?”
“I never axes my fares any questions ’cept when they says ‘By the hour.’ Then I wants to know a bit.”
“Yes; but this carrying of a lady out of a house in such fashion—did not this strike you as strange?”
“Strange, bless your ’eart, sir. You ought to see me cartin’ ’em off from the Daffodil Club after a big night—three and four in one keb, all blind, paralytic.”