him for a matter of five seconds, and then said, "Eh?"

"Mrs. Ford as was, then--Simmons now, ain't it?"

He said this with a furtive leer that Simmons neither liked nor
understood.

"No," said Simmons; "she ain't in now."

"You ain't her 'usband, are ye?"

"Yus."

The man took his pipe from his mouth and grinned silently and long.
"Blimy," he said at length, "you look like the sort o' bloke she'd
like," and with that he grinned again. Then, seeing that Simmons made
ready to shut the door, he put a foot on the sill and a hand against the
panel. "Don't be in a 'hurry, matey," he said; "I come 'ere t' 'ave a
little talk with you, man to man, d' ye see?" And he frowned fiercely.

Tommy Simmons felt uncomfortable, but the door would not shut, so he
parleyed. "Wotjer want?" he asked, "I dunno you."

"Then, if you'll excuse the liberty, I'll interdooce meself, in a manner
of speaking." He touched his cap with a bob of mock humility. "I'm Bob
Ford," he said, "come back out o' kingdom come so to say. Me as went
down with the _Mooltan_--safe dead five year gone. I come to see my
wife."

During this speech Thomas Simmons's jaw was dropping lower and lower. At
the end of it he poked his fingers up through his hair, looked down at
the mat, then up at the fanlight, then out into the street, then hard at
his visitor. But he found nothing to say.

"Come to see my wife," the man repeated. "So now we can talk it over--as
man to man."

Simmons slowly shut his mouth, and led the way upstairs mechanically,
his fingers still in his hair. A sense of the state of affairs sank
gradually into his brain, and the small devil woke again. Suppose
this man _was_ Ford? Suppose he _did_ claim his wife? Would it be
a knock-down blow? Would it hit him out?--or not? He thought of the
trousers, the tea-things, the mangling, the knives, the kettles, and the
windows; and he thought of them in the way of a backslider.

On the landing Ford clutched at his arm, and asked in a hoarse whisper,
"'Ow long 'fore she's back?"

"'Bout an hour, I expect," Simmons replied, having first of all
repeated the question in his own mind. And then he opened the parlour
door.

"Ah," said Ford, looking about him, "you've bin pretty comf'table. Them
chairs an' things," jerking his pipe toward them, "was hers--mine, that
is to say, speakin' straight, and man to man." He sat down, puffing
meditatively at his pipe, and presently, "Well," he continued, "'ere
I am