"Ah, that's just what I thought! D'rectly I see her that's just what I thought. Miss Pritchard's--that's the girls' school on the Brighton road, house is inside a wall. I went there to try to get them for _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. First the lady said there wasn't to be no flogging, then that she couldn't possibly bring her pupils if there wasn't any chairs for them to sit up. I told Mr Biffin what she said. And he said, well there wasn't any chairs, and there was an end of it." The woman with the baby interposed an observation. "We should do better if there was chairs. It isn't likely that the front seat people will want to sit on boards." The big woman proffered a reminder. "On the front seats there's baize." Which the woman with the baby spurned. "What's baize?" The man addressed himself to me. He was a thin man, with iron-grey hair, and there was something about his face which made me think that though he was untidy, and I wished he would not wear such a very greasy cap, I might induce myself in time to like him. Never once did he remove his pipe from his mouth, nor his hands from his trouser pockets. "Well, Miss Boyes, it's a pity you should have come to act, seeing that there's a good many of us here that does that sort of thing already. The difficulty is to get people to come and see us do it. Do you think that many of your friends would come and see you act?" "Well, not many of my friends." "That, again, is unfortunate." "But strangers would." "It's that way with you, is it? With us it's different. We look to friends for our support. Strangers are sometimes disagreeable. What plays were you thinking of acting?" "I don't know any plays as yet. But I soon could." "Of course. That's easy enough. _Hamlet_, I suppose, and that kind of thing. And what sort of part were you thinking of playing?" "I really haven't thought." "No, you wouldn't, such a trifle being of no consequence. You weren't thinking of playing old women?" "Well, I don't think I could act old women. But I might try. Young Betty acted an old man." "Young Betty did. Is that so? And who might young Betty be? A friend of yours? That young lady over there, her name's Betty." He jerked his elbow towards the woman with the baby. I was shocked, although, having already taken their ignorance for granted, I was able to conceal my feelings with comparative ease. "He was a boy." "A boy? With a name like Betty? What was his father and mother up to then?" "His name was William Henry West Betty. He was the Infant Roscius." "Was he?" "He was The Wonderful Boy. I am going to be a Wonderful Girl." "You're that already. Seeing that you are a Wonderful Girl, what might have put it into your head to come here?" "You are very poor, aren't you?" "Poor? That's what you might call a leading question. We're not rich. Who told you we were poor?" "Didn't you only take one and ninepence at the door one night?"