As soon as he said that I suspected that this was a friend of the other unemployed, from whom he had recently gathered certain data.
"Mine was more one of them sort of bag kind."
"What bag kind?"
"Well----" He fixed me with his gaze. If he had been acquainted with the fact that images are photographed upon our eyes, I might have suspected him of an intent to decipher the image of the purse in mine. "Was this here purse you found tied round the top?"
"Was yours?"
He read the answer in my eyes.
"No, I can't say as how mine was; but I thought as how this here one you found might have been--some purses are, you know."
Unless I erred he was endeavouring to consider what sort of purse that purse might be, his knowledge of the varieties of that article being limited. He taxed my patience.
"If you have lost a purse, my man, be so good as to describe it without delay. I can't stop here all the morning."
"Well, as I was a-saying, it was one of them sort of bag kind."