“Now, ma’am, I’ve three questions to ask: in the first place, as it’s not possible now to do a good turn to old Mr Lawrence, I must do it to his son. Can you tell me where he lives?”
Mrs Roby told him that it was in a street not far from where they sat, in a rather poor lodging.
“Secondly, ma’am, can you tell me where Willum’s sister-in-law lives,—Mrs Stout, alias Stoutley?”
“No, Captain Wopper, but I daresay Mr Lawrence can. He knows ’most everythink, and has a London Directory.”
“Good. Now, in the third place, where am I to find a lodging?”
Mrs Roby replied that there were plenty to be found in London of all kinds.
“You haven’t a spare room here, have you?” said the Captain, looking round.
Mrs Roby shook her head and said that she had not; and, besides, that if she had, it would be impossible for her to keep a lodger, as she had no servant, and could not attend on him herself.
“Mrs Roby,” said the Captain, “a gold-digging seaman don’t want no servant, nor no attendance. What’s up aloft?”
By pointing to a small trap-door in the ceiling, he rendered the question intelligible.