dly.

"S'pose I might just as well--if you'll take care of me."

It was a long time since Polly had been so gracious, so mild. All the
way down Whitehall, across the bridge, and into Kennington Road she
chatted of a hundred things, but never glanced at the one which held
complete possession of Christopher's mind. Many times he brought
himself all but to the point of mentioning it, yet his courage
invariably failed. The risk was too great; it needed such a trifling
provocation to disturb Polly's good humour. He perspired under the
warmth of the night and from the tumult of his feelings.

"You mustn't meet me again for a week," said Polly when her dwelling
was within sight.

"Why not?"

"Because I say so--that's enough, ain't it?"

"I say--Polly--"

"I've told you you're not to say 'Polly,'" she interrupted archly.

"You're awfully good, you know--but I wish--"

"What? Never mind; tell me next time. Ta-ta!"

She ran off, and Christopher had no heart to detain her. For five
minutes he hung over the parapet at Westminster, watching the black
flood and asking what was the use of life. On the whole Mr. Parish
found life decidedly agreeable, and after a night's rest, a little
worry notwithstanding, he could go to the City in the great morning
procession, one of myriads exactly like him, and would hopefully dip
his pen in the inkpots of Swettenham Brothers.

Moggie, the general, was just coming from the public-house with two
foaming jugs, one for Mrs. Bubb, the other for Mr. and Mrs. Cheeseman,
her first-floor lodgers. Miss Sparkes passed her disdainfully, and
entered with the aid of a latch-key. From upstairs sounded a banjo,
preluding; then the sound of Mr. Cheeseman's voice chanting a popular
refrain:

Come where the booze is cheaper,
Come where the pots 'old more,
Come where the boss is a bit of a joss,
Come to the pub next door!

Polly could not resist this invitation. She looked in at the
Cheesemans' sitting-room and enjoyed half an hour of friendly gossip
before going to bed.

CHAPTER V

A NONDESCRIPT

Scarcely had quiet fallen upon the house--it was half an hour after
midnight--when at the front door sounded a discreet but resolute
knocking. Mrs. Bubb, though she had retired to her chamber, was not yet
wholly unpresentable; reluctantly, and with wonder, she went to answer
the untimely visitor. After a short parley through the gap of the
chained door she ascended several flights an