Nar, things bein’ like this, one night I come up the styre from the
“Cabin” w’ere I’d been lyte to dinner, an’ went into the room w’ere
Becky was a-gettin’ ready to dress for ’er turn. There was a toff there,
in a topper, an’ a long black coat, an’ ’e was havin’ it art, ’ot an’
’eavy, with Becky. Just as I come up, ’e broke it off, cursink ’er
something awful, an’ she was as red as a bleedin’ ’am, an’ shykin’ a
herthquyke with ’er ’air darn, an’ ’er breath comin’ like a smith’s
bellus. The gentleman slum the door, an’ she says to me, “’Ere, Jock,
old man, will yer do me a fyvor? Just ’old this purse o’ mine an’ keep
it good an’ syfe till I get through my song, for that’s Ikey Behn wot
just went art, an’ ’e’ll get my license sure, if I leave it abart. I
carn’t trust nobody in this ’ole but you. It’s in there,” an’ she showed
me the pyper, shovin’ the purse into me ’and. I left an’ went darn front
w’ile she put on ’er rig an’ done ’er turn.
Art in the bar, there was the toff, talkin’ to one o’ the wyters, an’ I
knew ’e was tryin’ to tip somebody to frisk Big Becky’s pockets. W’en I
come up, ’e says, “’Ow de do, me man? I sye, ’ave a glarss with me,
won’t yer? Wot’ll yer ’ave?”
I marked ’is gyme then an’ there, an’ I sat darn to see ’ow ’e’d act. ’E
done it ’andsome, ’e did; ’e was a thoroughbred, an’ no mistake abart
_thet_! ’E wan’t the bloke to drive a bargain like most would ’ave done
under the syme irritytin’ circumstances.
“See ’ere,” ’e says, affable, an’ ’e opens ’is wallet an’ tykes art a
pack o’ bills. “’Ere’s a tharsand in ’undred-dollar greenbacks. You get
me that pyper Big Becky’s got in ’er purse!”
There I was, sittin’ right in front of ’im, with the license in me
pocket, an’ there was a fortune in front o’ me as would ’ave set me up
in biz for the rest o’ me life. Wot’s more, if they’s anythink I do
admire, it’s a thoroughbred toff, for I was brought up to reckernize
clarss, an’ I seen at a wink that this ’ere Johnnie was a dead sport. I
knew wot it meant to ’im to get possession o’ thet pyper, for Becky
could myke it jolly ’ot for ’im with it. I confess, gents, thet for
abart ’alf a mo I hesityted. But I couldn’t go back on the woman, seem’
she ’ad trusted me partickler, an’ so I shook me ’ed mournful, an’
refused the wad.
’E was a bit darn in the mouth at thet, not lookin’ to run up agin such,
in a plyce like Bottle Myer’s, I expeck. “See ’ere, me man,” ’e says, “I
just _gort_ to ’ave thet pyper. I’ll tell yer wot, w’en I gort art thet
license, I swyre I thought the woman was stryte an’ all she pretended to
be. We was all of us took in. I wa’n’t after ’er money, I was plum balmy
on ’er, sure, an’ nar I’m engyged to the nicest little gal as ever
lived, an’ it’ll queer the whole thing if this ’ere foolishness gets
art!”
With my respeck for the haristocracy, I was jolly sorry for the chap,
but I wa’n’t a-goin’ to sell Becky art, not _thet_ wye. I wa’n’t no holy
Willie, but I stuck at that. So I arsked, “Wot’s the gal’s nyme?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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