scowl.

He was indeed a very ancient man, though very nattily dressed from
spotless collar to shiny patent leather shoes, a small, dandified,
bright-eyed man whose broken nose and battered features bore eloquent
testimony to long and hard usage.

"'Ook it!" he croaked, with square bony jaw fiercely outthrust. "We
don't want no peanuts 'ere, d'j 'ear? 'Op off, 'ook it before I break
every blessed bone in yer bloomin' body!"

"What, Old Un, don't you know me, either?"

"Lumme!" exclaimed the little old man, blinking beneath hoary brows.
"Ho, lor' lumme, it's 'im! Blimy, it's the Guv'nor--'ow do, Guv!" and
shooting immaculate cuffs over bony wrists he extended a clawlike hand.

"How are you, Old Un?"

"Well, sir, what with the rheumatix an' a stiff j'int or two an' a touch
o' lumbager, not to mention all my other ailments, I ain't quite s' spry
as I was!"

"But you look very well!"

"That's where your heyes deceives you, Guv. A great sufferer I be,
though patient under haffliction, ho, yus--except for a swear now an'
then which do me a power o' good--yus! If I was to tell you all the woes
as my poor old carkiss is hair to, you could write a book on 'em--a big
'un. I got everything the matter wi' me, I 'ave, from a thick ear an'
broke nose as I took in Brummagem sixty an' five years ago to a hactive
liver."

"A what?" enquired Ravenslee.

"A hactive liver. Lord, Guv, my liver gets that hactive lately as I
can't set still--Joe knows, ax Joe! All as I ain't got o' human woes is
toothache, not 'avin' no teeth to ache, y' see, an' them s' rotten as it
'ud make yer 'eart bleed. An' then I get took short o' breath--look at
me now, dang it!"

"Why, then, sit down, Old Un," said Ravenslee, drawing up a somewhat
worn armchair. "Joe and I are going at it hard and fast this afternoon,
and I want you to time the rounds." And he proceeded to remove his
garments.

"Oh, j'y!" cried the Old Un, hugging himself in bony arms. "Oh, j'yful
words. Ah, but you peels like a good un, sir," he croaked, viewing white
flesh and bulging muscle with knowing old eyes, "good an' long in the
arm an' wide slope o' shoulder. You might ha' done well in the ring if
you'd been blessed wi' poverty an' I'd 'ad the 'andling of ye--a world's
unbeat champion, like Joe. A good fighter were I an' a wonnerful
trainer! Ho, yus, I might ha' made a top-notcher of ye if you 'adn't
been cursed wi' money."

"I suppose," said Ravenslee thoughtfully, "I supp