“Don’t ast me,” begged Mr. Leigh.
“He’ll come in useful,” whispered the Duchess.
“Bat don’t care for kids about the place.”
“He’s as knowing,” urged the Duchess, “as a grown-up.”
“This is only our town ’ouse,” explained the red-haired young woman to Bobbie. “Rather ’andsome, palatial sort of mansion, don’t you think?”
“Tell better,” said Bobbie, looking round, “when someone’s give it a good clean down. What’s in the room at the back?”
“You ask my ’usband that question when he comes ’ome,” said the young woman with sudden acerbity, “and he’ll strap you till he’s tired.”
“Shan’t ask him, then,” said Bobbie.
“Never pry, Bobbie,” counselled the Duchess warningly. “Little boys that go prying never come to no good. Carry that lamp upright, and don’t upset the oil, or I’ll upset you.”
Bobbie, submitted to Mr. Bat Miller upon that gentleman’s return from obtaining change in Kingsland Road, was so fortunate as to obtain favour, and Bat Miller after telling the young woman, who seemed of a jealous disposition, exactly how his time had been occupied, ruffled the boy’s head of hair, telling him that if he behaved himself he should learn in that house everything worth knowing. But none of your tricks mind, said Mr. Bat Miller. As a first test Mr. Miller took a bright two shilling-piece from an inside pocket of his waistcoat, and, spite of the protests of the two women, dispatched him with it to a certain shop in Hackney Road to purchase one ounce of shag. When Bobbie returned, panting, with the tobacco in a screw of paper and the change safely in his fist, Bat Miller first tested the coins by trying them with his teeth, and then gave Bobbie for himself a penny, some of the tobacco, and commendation in congratulatory but lurid terms. The two men went out together, and the Duchess and young Mrs. Bat Miller exchanged grievances, Mrs. Miller complaining a good deal of her husband’s irregular behaviour, and presently they too, finding themselves in agreement on several questions, went out, locking the boy in that he might look after the house. They promised to be absent for not more than two seconds, but by some error they made it two hours, and during that time Bobbie prowled over the house and went into every room, excepting only the locked-up room at the back of the ground floor.