"Full of unsociability and conceit. And wot is 'e? Wot is 'e? 'Is father keeps a bookshop."
"A very fine bookshop, too," said Miss Roots. It was the first time that she had ever spoken of her own accord to Mr. Soper.
"He may have come out lately, but you should have seen the way 'e began, in a dirty little second 'and shop in the City. A place," said Mr. Soper, "I wouldn't 'ave put my nose into if I was paid. Crammed full of narsty, mangy, 'Olloway Street rubbish."
"Look here now," said Mr. Spinks, now scarlet with fury, "you needn't throw his business in his face, for he's chucked it."
"I don't think any the better of him for that."
"Don't you? Well, he won't worry himself into fits about your opinion."
"'Ad he got a new berth then, when he flung up the old one?"
Now one thing Mrs. Downey, with all her indulgence, did not permit, and that was any public allusion to her boarders' affairs. She might not refuse to discuss them privately with Miss Bramble or Miss Roots, but that was a very different thing. Therefore she maintained a dignified silence.
"Well, then, I should like to know 'ow he's going to pay 'is way."
Before the grossness of this insinuation Mrs. Downey abandoned her policy of silence.