He himself was intensely interested in the turn his wanderings had taken.

There was a certain excitement in his present position,--he was experiencing the "new sensation" he had longed for,--and he realised it with the fullest sense of enjoyment.

To be one of the richest men in the world, and yet to seem so miserably poor and helpless as to be regarded with suspicion by such a class of fellows as those among whom he was now seated, was decidedly a novel way of acquiring an additional relish for the varying chances and changes of life.
"Brought yer father along wi' ye, Matt ?" suddenly asked a wizened little man of about sixty, with a questioning grin on his hard weather-beaten features.
"I aint up to 'awkin' dead bodies out o' their graves yet, Bill Bush," answered Peke.

"Unless my old dad's corpsy's turned to yerbs, which is more'n likely, I aint got 'im.

This 'ere's a friend o' mine,--Mister David--e's out o' work through the Lord's speshul dispensation an' rule o' natur--gettin' old!" A laugh went round, but a more favourable impression towards Peke's companion was at once created by this introduction.
"Sorry for ye!" said the individual called Bill Bush, nodding encouragingly to Helmsley.