'I wouldn't drink if I was you, Liza,' added another, with mock gravity. 'It's a bad 'abit ter git into,' and he began rolling and swaying about like a drunken man.
If Liza had been 'in form' she would have gone straight away and given the whole lot of them a sample of her strength; but she was only rather bored and vexed that they should disturb her quietness, so she let them talk. They saw she was not to be drawn, and leaving her, set to their game. She watched them for some time, but her thoughts gradually lost themselves, and insensibly her mind was filled with a burly form, and she was again thinking of Jim.
''E is a good sort ter want ter tike me ter the ply,' she said to herself. 'Tom never arst me!'
Jim had said he would come out in the evening; he ought to be here soon, she thought. Of course she wasn't going to the theatre with him, but she didn't mind talking to him; she rather enjoyed being asked to do a thing and refusing, and she would have liked another opportunity of doing so. But he didn't come and he had said he would!
'I say, Bill,' she said at last to one of the boys who was fielding close beside her, 'that there Blakeston—d'you know 'im?'
'Yes, rather; why, he works at the sime plice as me.'
'Wot's 'e do with 'isself in the evening; I never see 'im abaht?'
'I dunno. I see 'im this evenin' go into the "Red Lion". I suppose 'e's there, but I dunno.'
Then he wasn't coming. Of course she had told him she was going to stay indoors, but he might have come all the same—just to see.
'I know Tom 'ud 'ave come,' she said to herself, rather sulkily.