out the words: nor was I, when in the presence of the sect; and Miss Jane had her chin in the air, as if she thought me and Gentleman was not needed in any way whatsoever. The only talk before we turned her in at the garden gate was done by Gentleman, who told a pretty long story about a friend of his in Upper Sydenham who had been silly enough to marry, and had had trouble ever since.
"That night, after we had went to bed, I said to Gentleman, 'Gentleman,' I says, 'what's going to be done about this? We've got about as much chance, if Jerry marries that girl,' I says, 'as a couple of helpless pink chocolate creams at a schoolgirls' picnic.' 'If,' says Gentleman, 'He ain't married her yet. That is a girl of character, Jack. Trust me. Didn't she strike you as a girl who would like a man with a bit of devil in him, a man with some go in him, a you-be-darned kind of man? Does Jerry fill the bill? He's more like a door-mat with "Welcome" written on it, than anything else.'
"Well, we seen a good deal of Miss Jane in the next week or so. We keeps Jerry under—what's it the heroine says in the melodrama? 'Oh, cruel, cruel, S.P. something.' Espionage, that's it. We keeps Jerry under espionage, and whenever he goes trickling round after the girl, we goes trickling round after him.
"'Things is running our way,' says Gentleman to me, after one of these meetings. 'That girl is getting cross with Jerry. She wants Reckless Rudolf, not a man who stands and grins when other men butt in on him and his girl. Mark my words, Jack. She'll get tired of Jerry, and go off and marry a soldier, and we'll live happy ever after.' 'Think so?' I says. 'Sure of it,' says Gentleman.
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"Whenever he goes trickling round after the girl, we goes trickling round after him."
"It was the Sunday after this that Jerry Moore announces to us, wriggling, that he has an engagement to take supper with Jane and her folks. He'd have liked to have slipped away secret, but we was keeping him under espionage too crisp for that, so he has to tell us. 'Excellent,' says Gentleman. 'It will be a great treat to Jack and myself to meet the family. We will go along with you.' So off we all goes, and pushes our boots in sociable fashion under the Tuxton table. I looked at Miss Jane out of the corner of my eye; and honest, that chin of hers was sticking out a foot, and Jerry didn't dare look
