[_Returning the handkerchief._] Excuse me. [_In putting the handkerchief into his breast-pocket he first removes a handful of cheap-looking squibs._] Lor! You will carry them deadly fireworks about with you, Tyler.
[_Regarding them fondly._] Fireworks is my only disserpation. There ain't much danger unless anybody lunges at me. [_Producing some dirty crackers from his trousers pockets, and regarding them with gloomy relish._] Friction is the risk I run.
[_Palpitating._] Oh, don't, Tyler! How can you 'ave such a 'ankering?
[_Intensely._] It's more than a 'ankering. I love to 'oard 'em and meller 'em. To-day they're damp--to-morrow they're dry. And when the time comes for to let them off--
[_Putting the fireworks away._] P'r'aps not--and it's their 'orrible uncertainty wot I crave after. Lift your end, Jane. [_They take up the trunk as Gwendoline Hawkins and Ermyntrude Johnson, two pretty girls, the one gushing, the other haughty in manner, appear in the hall._]
Here are Miss Dyott's boxes--she is really going to-day. I am so happy!
What an inexpressible relief! Oh, Tyler, I am dissatisfied with the manner in which my shoes are polished.
Yes--and, Tyler, you never fed my mice last night.
It ain't my place. Birds and mice is Jane's place.
You are an inhuman boy. [_Shaking Tyler._]
Don't shake him, Miss, don't shake him! [_Peggy Hesslerigge enters through the hall, and comes between Tyler and Gwendoline. Peggy is a shabbily dressed, untidy girl, with wild hair and inky fingers, her voice is rather shrewish and her actions are jerky: altogether she has the appearance of an overwise and neglected child._].
Leave the boy alone, Gwendoline Hawkins! What has he done?
Go away, Tyler. [_Tyler and Jane deposit the trunk in the hall with the other baggage, and disappear._] You silly girls! To make an enemy of the boy at the very moment we depend upon his devotion! It's just like you, Ermyntrude Johnson!
Don't you threaten me with your inky finger, Miss Hesslerigge, please.
Ugh! Haven't we sworn to help Dinah Rankling with our last breath? Haven't we sworn to free her from the chains of tyranny and oppression, and never to eat much till we have seen her safely and happily by her husband's side!