Her husband thought no such
woman had ever trodden the earth, and publicly blessed the day on which
he first set eyes on her.
"After the dose I'd 'ad with me first, 'twas a bit of a risk, that I
knew. And it put me off me sleep for a night or two before'and. But my
Tilly's the queen o' women--I say the queen, sir! I've never 'ad a
wrong word from 'er, an' when I go she gits every penny I've got. Why,
I'm jiggered if she didn't stop at 'ome from the Races t'other day, an'
all on my account!"
"Now then, pa, drop it. Or the doctor'll think you've been mixing your
liquors. Give your old pin here and let me poultice it."
He had another sound reason for gratitude. Somewhere in the background
of his house dwelt his two ne'er-do-well sons; Tilly had accepted their
presence uncomplainingly. Indeed she sometimes stood up for Tom, against
his father. "Now, pa, stop nagging at the boy, will you? You'll never
get anything out of 'im that way. Tom's right enough if you know how to
take him. He'll never set the Thames on fire, if that's what you mean.
But I'm thankful, I can tell you, to have a handy chap like him at my
back. If I 'ad to depend on your silly old paws, I'd never get anything
done at all."
And so Tom, a flaxen-haired, sheepish-looking man of something over
thirty, led a kind of go-as-you-please existence about the place, a
jack-of-all-trades--in turn carpenter, whitewasher, paper-hanger--an
expert fetcher and carrier, bullied by his father, sheltered under his
stepmother's capacious wing.
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