"It's going to be in Putney High Street," continued Mrs. Bindle, ignoring Bindle's remark. Bindle looked up at her with genuine puzzlement on his features. "Putney 'Igh Street used to be a pretty 'ot place at night before the war," he remarked; "it ain't exactly cool now; but I never thought o' the devil openin' a shop there." "I said Mr. Hearty," retorted Mrs. Bindle angrily. "Oh! 'Earty," said Bindle contemptuously. "'Earty'd open anythink except 'is 'eart, or a barrel of apples 'e's sellin', knowin' them to be rotten. Wot's 'e want to open another shop for? 'E's got two already, ain't 'e?" "Why haven't you got on?" stormed Mrs. Bindle inconsequently. "Why haven't you got three shops?" "Well!" continued Bindle, "I might 'ave done so, but wot should I sell in 'em?" "You never got on, you lorst every job you ever got. You'd 'ave lorst me long ago if——" "No," remarked Bindle with solemn conviction as he rose and took his cap from behind the door. "You ain't the sort o' woman wot's lorst, Mrs. B., you're one o' them wot's found, like the little lamb that Ole Woe-and-Whiskers talked about when I went to chapel with you that night. S'long." The news about Mr. Hearty's third venture in the greengrocery trade occupied Bindle's mind to the exclusion of all else as he walked in the direction of Chelsea to call upon Dr. Richard Little, whom he had met in connection with the Temperance Fête fiasco at Barton Bridge. He winked at only three girls and passed two remarks to carmen, and one to a bus-conductor, who was holding on rather unnecessarily to the arm of a pretty girl.[Pg 44] [Pg 44] He found Dick Little at home and with him his brother Tom, and "Guggers," now a captain in the Gordons. "Hullo! Here's J.B., gug-gug-good," cried Guggers, hurling his fourteen stone towards the diminutive visitor. "Blessed if it ain't ole Spit-and-Speak in petticoats," cried Bindle. "I'm glad to see you, sir, that I am," and he shook Guggers warmly by the hand. Guggers, as he was known at Oxford on account of his inability to pronounce a "G" without a preliminary "gug-gug," had taken a prominent part in the Oxford rag, when Bindle posed as the
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