Then I see that I 'ad gorn to number
twelve instead of number fourteen. Your wife, your real wife, came out
of number fourteen--and she was worse than the other. But they both
thought it was you--there's no doubt of that. They chased me all the
way up the road, and if it 'adn't ha' been for this cab that was just
passing I don't know wot would 'ave 'appened to me."
He shook his 'ead and smiled agin, and, arter opening the wicket a
trifle and telling the cabman he shouldn't be long, he turned to me and
asked me for the sixpence, to wear on his watch-chain.
"Sixpence!" I ses. "SIXPENCE! Wot do you think is going to 'appen to
me when I go 'ome?"
"Oh, I 'adn't thought o' that," he ses. "Yes, o' course."
"Wot about my wife's jealousy?" I ses. "Wot about the other, and her
'usband, a cooper as big as a 'ouse?"
"Well, well," he ses, "one can't think of everything. It'll be all the
same a hundred years hence."
"Look 'ere," I ses, taking 'is shoulder in a grip of iron. "You come
back with me now in that cab and explain. D'ye see? That's wot you've
got to do."
"All right," he ses; "certainly. Is--is the husband bad-tempered?"
"You'll see," I ses; "but that's your business.
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