Mr. Polly had never been such a social success before. They hung upon his every word--and laughed. What a family they were for laughter! And he loved laughter. The background he apprehended dimly; it was very much the sort of background his life had always had. There was a threadbare tablecloth on the table, and the slop basin and teapot did not go with the cups and saucers, the plates were different again, the knives worn down, the butter lived in a greenish glass dish of its own. Behind was a dresser hung with spare and miscellaneous crockery, with a workbox and an untidy work-basket, there was an ailing musk plant in the window, and the tattered and blotched wallpaper was covered by bright-coloured grocers' almanacs. Feminine wrappings hung from pegs upon the door, and the floor was covered with a varied collection of fragments of oilcloth. The Windsor chair he sat in was unstable--which presently afforded material for humour. "Steady, old nag," he said; "whoa, my friskiacious palfry!" "The things he says! You never know what he won't say next!" III "You ain't talkin' of goin'!" cried Mrs. Larkins. "Supper at eight." "Stay to supper with _us_, now you '_ave_ come over," said Mrs. Larkins, with corroborating cries from Minnie. "'Ave a bit of a walk with the gals, and then come back to supper. You might all go and meet Annie while I straighten up, and lay things out." "You're not to go touching the front room mind," said Miriam. "_Who's_ going to touch yer front room?" said Mrs. Larkins, apparently forgetful for a moment of Mr. Polly. Both girls dressed with some care while Mrs. Larkins sketched the better side of their characters, and then the three young people went out to see something of Stamton. In the streets their risible mood gave way to a self-conscious propriety that was particularly evident in Miriam's bearing. They took Mr. Polly to the Stamton Wreckeryation ground--that at least was what they called it--with its handsome custodian's cottage, its asphalt paths, its Jubilee drinking fountain, its clumps of wallflower and daffodils, and so to the new cemetery and a distant view of the Surrey hills, and round by the gasworks to the canal to the factory, that presently disgorged a surprised and radiant Annie. "El-_lo_" said Annie. It is very pleasant to every properly constituted mind to be a centre of amiable interest for one's fellow creatures, and when one is a young man conscious of becoming mourning and a certain wit, and the fellow creatures are three young and ardent and sufficiently expressive young women who dispute for the honour of walking by one's side, one may be excused a secret exaltation. They did dispute. "I'm going to '_ave_ 'im now," said Annie. "You two've been 'aving 'im all the afternoon. Besides, I've got something to say to him." She had something to say to him. It came presently. "I say," she said abruptly. "I _did_ get them rings out of a prize packet." "What rings?" asked Mr. Polly.