"I've lost all my puff."
"Been running?" I ses, very perlite.
"Arter a pickpocket," he ses. "He snatched a lady's purse just as she
was stepping aboard the French boat with her 'usband. 'Twelve pounds in
it in gold, two peppermint lozenges, and a postage stamp.'"
He shook his 'ead, and put his 'elmet on agin.
"Holding it in her little 'and as usual," he ses. "Asking for trouble, I
call it. I believe if a woman 'ad one hand off and only a finger and
thumb left on the other, she'd carry 'er purse in it."
He knew a'most as much about wimmen as I do. When 'is fust wife died,
she said 'er only wish was that she could take 'im with her, and she made
'im promise her faithful that 'e'd never marry agin. His second wife,
arter a long illness, passed away while he was playing hymns on the
concertina to her, and 'er mother, arter looking at 'er very hard, went
to the doctor and said she wanted an inquest.
He went on talking for a long time, but I was busy doing a bit of 'ead-
work and didn't pay much attention to 'im. I was thinking o' twelve
pounds, two lozenges, and a postage stamp laying in the mud at the bottom
of my dock, and arter a time 'e said 'e see as 'ow I was waiting to get
back to my night's rest, and went off--stamping.
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