“Got two rooms now, Miss?”
“Rather,” said the little woman proudly.
He followed Miss Threepenny upstairs, through passages, and up more stairs to her rooms. There the diminutive woman took off her bonnet and set to work, as she said, to put the place to rights, which, seeing that everything was perfectly neat and in order, seemed a superfluous act, and indeed consisted mainly in moving the furniture from it’s proper place and setting it back again. Bobbie felt confused and very tired, but the little woman appeared so obviously glad to have someone to talk to that he listened politely to her good-tempered chatters. They had supper together, and then Miss Threepenny did something to an elderly easy chair in the manner of an expert conjuror, whereupon it instantly changed into a middle-aged couch. She bustled in and out of her own room, bringing a pillow and some sheets; presently Bobbie found that he could no longer look at the couch without yawning desperately.
“In the morning,” said the tiny woman, lighting a candle, “you sleep on, because I shall be out and about early. And I shall be ’ome midday to give you your dinner.”
“Goo’ night,” said the boy sleepily, taking his coat off.
“Dear, dear!” cried the little woman with a comic affectation of bashfulness. “Do wait till I’m out of the room. You forget that I’m an old maid. Some of you young men nowadays are enough to shock a saint.”
“Don’t you wish you’d got a son of your own, miss?” asked Bobbie, “to live here and look after you?”
“Stuff and nonsense!” she answered quickly. “What should I want with a great big slab of a boy knocking about the place? There’s a ridiculous idea to be sure! Wonder what put that into your head, for goodness’ sake.”
“Nothing special,” said the boy, yawning. “Goo’ ni’.”
“All the same,” said the little woman hesitatingly, “if you like, Bobbie, you can do this. Jest for fun, you know. You can give me a kiss on the forehead and say, ‘Good night, mother.’” She laughed awkwardly. “Only for the lark of the thing, you know.”