"One of us two is talking like a born idiot--and (mind this) it isn't me.

Look here! Your young lady goes out for a walk, and she meets with a dirty, shabby old beggar--I look like a shabby old beggar already, don't I?
Very good.

This dirty old wretch whines and whimpers and tells a long story, and gets sixpence out of the girl--and knows her by that time, inside and out, as well as if he had made her--and, mark! hasn't asked her a single ques tion, and, instead of annoying her, has made her happy in the performance of a charitable action.

Stop a bit! I haven't done with you yet.

Who blacks your boots and shoes?
Look here!" He pushed his pug-dog off his lap, dived under the table, appeared again with an old boot and a bottle of blackening, and set to work with tigerish activity.