revulsion of feeling Pinkey had
decided that Chook was too handy with his fists to make a desirable
bloke, and a change of address on the following Monday had enabled her
to give him the slip easily. And after waiting at street corners till
he was tired, Chook had returned to his old love, the two-up school.
Pinkey broke the silence with a question that was furthest from her
thoughts.

"'Ow are yez sellin' yer peas?"

Chook dropped his basket and roared with laughter.

"If yer only come ter poke borak, yer better go," cried Pinkey, with an
angry flush.

Chook sobered instantly.

"No 'arm meant," he said, quite humbly, "but yer gimme the knock-out
every time I see yer. But wot are yez doin'?" he asked.

"We're movin'," said Pinkey, with an important air.

"Oh, are yez?" said Chook, looking round with interest. "Yous an' old
Jimmy there?" He nodded familiarly to the vanman, who was filling his
pipe. "Well, yer must excuse me, but I'm on in this act."

"Wotcher mean?" said Pinkey, looking innocent, but she flushed with
pleasure.

"Nuthin'," said Chook, seizing the leg of a table; "but wait till I put
the nosebag on the moke."

"Whose cart is it?" inquired Pinkey.

"Jack Ryan's," answered Chook; "'e's bin shickered since last
We'n'sday, an' I'm takin' it round fer 'is missis an' the kids."

Mrs Partridge received Chook very graciously when she learned that he
was a friend of Pinkey's and had offered to help in passing. She had
been reading a penny novelette under great difficulties, and furtively
eating some slices of bread-and-butter which she had thoughtfully put
in her pocket. But now she perked up under the eyes of this vigorous
young man, and even attempted to help by carrying small objects round
the room and then putting them back where she found them. In an hour
the van was empty, and Jimmy was told to call next week for his money.
It was well into the afternoon when Chook resumed his hawking with the
cart and then only because Pinkey resolutely pushed him out of the door.

Chook's previous love-affairs had all been conducted in the open air.
Following the law of Cardigan Street, he met the girl at the street
corner and spent the night in the park or the dance-room. Rarely, if
she forgot the appointment, he would saunter past the house, and
whistle till she came out. What passed within the house was no concern
of his. Parents were his natural enemies, who regarded him with the
eyes of a b