'I shan't enjoy it a bit without you, Liza.'
'You git somebody else, Tom. You'll do withaht me all right.'
She nodded to him, and walked up the street to the house of her friend Sally. Having arrived in front of it, she put her hands to her mouth in trumpet form, and shouted:
I! 'I! 'I! Sally!'
A couple of fellows standing by copied her.
I! 'I! 'I! Sally!'
'Garn!' said Liza, looking round at them.
Sally did not appear and she repeated her call. The men imitated her, and half a dozen took it up, so that there was enough noise to wake the seven sleepers.
I! 'I! 'I! Sally!'
A head was put out of a top window, and Liza, taking off her hat, waved it, crying:
'Come on dahn, Sally!'
'Arright, old gal!' shouted the other. 'I'm comin'!'
'So's Christmas!' was Liza's repartee.
There was a clatter down the stairs, and Sally, rushing through the passage, threw herself on to her friend. They began fooling, in reminiscence of a melodrama they had lately seen together.
'Oh, my darlin' duck!' said Liza, kissing her and pressing her, with affected rapture, to her bosom.
'My sweetest sweet!' replied Sally, copying her.
'An' 'ow does your lidyship ter-day?'
'Oh!' with immense languor 'fust class; and is your royal 'ighness quite well?'
'I deeply regret,' answered Liza, 'but my royal 'ighness 'as got the collywobbles.'
Sally was a small, thin girl, with sandy hair and blue eyes, and a very freckled complexion. She had an enormous mouth, with terrible, square teeth set wide apart, which looked as if they could masticate an iron bar. She was dressed like Liza, in a shortish black skirt and an old-fashioned bodice, green and grey and yellow with age; her sleeves were tucked up to the elbow, and she wore a singularly dirty apron, that had once been white.
'Wot 'ave you got yer 'air in them things for?' asked Liza, pointing to the curl-papers. 'Goin' aht with yer young man ter-day?'
'No, I'm going ter stay 'ere all day.'
'Wot for, then?'
'Why, 'Arry's going ter tike me ter Chingford ter-morrer.'
'Oh? In the "Red Lion" brake?'
'Yus. Are you goin'?'
'Na!'
'Not! Well, why don't you get round Tom? 'E'll tike yer, and jolly glad 'e'll be, too.'
E arst me ter go with 'im, but I wouldn't.'
'Swop me bob why not?'
'I ain't keeping company with 'im.'
'Yer might 'ave gone with 'im all the sime.'
'Na. You're goin' with 'Arry, ain't yer?'
'Yus!'
'An' you're goin' to 'ave 'im?'
'Right again!'
'Well, I couldn't go with Tom, and then throw him over.'
'Well, you are a mug!'
The two girls had strolled down towards the Westminster Bridge Road, and Sally, meeting her young man, had gone to him. Liza walked back, wishing to get home in time to cook the dinner. But she went slowly, for she knew every dweller in the street, and as she passed the groups sitting at their doors, as on the previous evening, but this time mostly engaged in peeling potatoes or shelling peas, she stopped and had a little chat. Everyone liked her, and was glad to have her company. 'Good old Liza,' they would say, as she left them, 'she's a rare good sort, ain't she?'
She asked after the aches and pains of all the old people, and delicately inquired after the babies, past and future; the children hung on to her skirts and asked her to play with them, and she would hold one end of the rope while tiny little ragged girls skipped, invariably entangling themselves after two jumps.
She had nearly reached home, when she heard a voice cry:
'Mornin'!'
She looked round and recognized the man whom Tom had told her was called Jim Blakeston. He was sitting on a stool at the door of one of the houses, playing with two young children, to whom he was giving rides on his knee. She remembered his heavy brown beard from the day before, and she had also an impression of great size; she noticed this morning that he was, in fact, a big man, tall and broad, and she saw besides that he had large, masculine features and pleasant brown eyes. She supposed him to be about forty.
'Mornin'!' he said again, as she stopped and looked at him.
'Well, yer needn't look as if I was goin' ter eat yer up, 'cause I ain't,' he said.
Oo are you? I'm not afeard of yer.'
'Wot are yer so bloomin' red abaht?' he asked pointedly.
'Well, I'm 'ot.'
'You ain't shirty 'cause I kissed yer last night?'
'I'm not shirty; but it was pretty cool, considerin' like as I didn't know yer.'
'Well, you run into my arms.'
'Thet I didn't; you run aht and caught me.'
'An' kissed yer before you could say "Jack Robinson".' He laughed at the thought. 'Well, Liza,' he went on, 'seein' as 'ow I kissed yer against yer will, the best thing you can do ter make it up is to kiss me not against yer will.'
'Me?' said Liza, looking at him, open-mouthed. 'Well you are a pill!'
The children began to clamour for the riding, which had been discontinued on Liza's approach.
'Are them your kids?' she asked.
'Yus; them's two on 'em.'
Ow many 'ave yer got?'
'Five; the eldest gal's fifteen, and the next one 'oo's a boy's twelve, and then there are these two and baby.'
'Well, you've got enough for your money.'
'Too many for me and more comin'.'
'Ah well,' said Liza, laughing, 'thet's your fault, ain't it?'
Then she bade him good morning, and strolled off.
He watched her as she went, and saw half a dozen little boys surround her and beg her to join them in their game of cricket. They caught hold of her arms and skirts, and pulled her to their pitch.
'No, I can't,' she said trying to disengage herself. 'I've got the dinner ter cook.'
'Dinner ter cook?' shouted one small boy. 'Why, they always cooks the cats' meat at the shop.'
'You little so-and-so!' said Liza, somewhat inelegantly, making a dash at him.
He dodged her and gave a whoop; then turning he caught her round the legs, and another boy catching hold of her round the neck they dragged her down, and all three struggled on the ground, rolling over and over; the other boys threw themselves on the top, so that there was a great heap of legs and arms and heads waving and bobbing up and down.
Liza extricated herself with some difficulty, and taking off her hat she began cuffing the boys with it, using all the time the most lively expressions. Then, having cleared the field, she retired victorious into her own house and began cooking the dinner.
Chapter 4