"I know they do," remarked Mrs Perkins sententiously, while Mrs Widger
laughed rather proudly.

"Iss; us was to Plymouth once, an' a nice li'l girl wi' a white bow
roun' her neck came up an' spoke to me when I was a-looking into a shop
window, an' her said, 'I lives jest here,' an' I said, 'Do 'ee, my
dear? I'll be 'long in a minute....'"

"Where was Mrs Widger then?"

"Oh, her was 'bout ten yards in front."

"Well?"

"Iss; if her won't be nice to me when I wants her tu, I shall go into
Plymouth an' find out my li'l girl there...."

"Garn then, yu fule! I can du wi'out 'ee. I shall hae thic divorce.
Thee's think, I s'pose, as I can't get 'long wi'out 'ee? Thee's much
mistaken!"

"Well...."

"Git 'long out wi' 'ee!" repeated Mrs Widger, laughing and very
proudly. "Git 'long out an' let me clear these yer breakfast things."

"What have yu got for dinner, me dear? Then I'll remain with 'ee an'
not go out at all."

"G'out!"

Amid loud laughter, Tony snatched a kiss from both ladies, and pranced
out.

16

[Sidenote: _MRS WIDGER_]

"'Tisn't no use to be jealous," Mrs Widger says. "I used to be a bit
taken that way once, but I ain't now, an' 'twuden' make no difference
if I was." Doubtless she is quite right, and she certainly succeeds in
never showing what jealousy she may feel when, for instance, she
catches sight of Tony strolling in through the Gut with his arm half
round another woman's waist, as his playful way is. If Tony speaks of
his first wife she does not, like most second wives, stop talking. If
she hears of a woman unhappily married, she usually dismisses the
affair with a "Well, her shuden't ha' married 'en: her must put up wi'
'en now her's got 'en." The goings-on of unmarried people do not easily
scandalise her. "I reckon," she says, "yu can du as yu like afore yu'm
married, but after that yu'm fixed." She is so confident of the
fastness of the marriage tie (it is, of course, much more indissoluble
for poor people who cannot travel, have no servants, and cannot afford
lawyers for divorce proceedings) that she can afford to give Tony
plenty of rope in small things. Her trust in his faithfulness is
absolute, and justified. She has him; he cannot get along without her;
she knows that. Her attitude is founded on experience and common-sense;
not on some abstract system of morality that never controlled men's
lives, and never will.

When I used to look upon fishermen as picturesque common