yet; only"--with a wistful sigh--"in the Force you
got to put that sort o' thing behind you, . . . which brings me back
to what I was saying. In an ordinary way, a police-constable's life
is like a parson's: they see more'n most men o' what's goin' on, but
they don't _belong_ to it. You can't properly hobnob with a chap
that, like as not, you'll be called on to marry or bury to-morra, nor
stand him a drink--nor be stood--when, quite as like, next time
you'll be servin' a summons. There's a Jane on both sides."

"A who?"

"'Tisn' a ''oo,' 'tis an 'it': bein' an expression I got off an
Extension Lecturer they had down to Bodmin, one time. I'd a great
hankerin', in those days, to measure six foot two in my socks afore I
finished growin', and I signed on for his lectures in that hope.
With a man callin' his-self by that name and advertisin' as he'd
lecture on 'Measure for Measure,' I thought I'd a little bit of all
right. But he ran right off the rails an' chatted away about the
rummiest things, such as theatricals. I forget what switched 'en off
an' on to that partic'lar line: but I well remember his openin'
remark. He said, 'To measure the true stature of a great man we must
go down to the true roots. A certain Jane is bound to overtake us if
we dig too long among the common 'taturs with their un-stopp'd lines
an' weak endings and this or that defective early quest. Oh! all
profitable, no doubt, an' worth cultivatin' so long as we do not look
for taste.' When I woke up at the end 'twas with these words printed
in mind same as they've remained. But I couldn' figure out how this
here Jane got mixed up in the diet. So, bein' of a practical mind
then, in my 'teens, same as I be to-day, I stopped behind and asked
him--takin' care to look bright and intelligent--who might be this
Jane he'd allooded to. If you'll believe me, it turned out to be no
person at all, but a way the gentry have of sayin' they're
uncomfortable; same as, through some writin' chap or other, all the
papers was talkin' of your belly as your Little Mary."

"Mine?"

"When I say 'yours,' o' course I mean to say 'ours'--that's to say,
every one's." Rat-it-all made a semicircular sweep of the hand in
front of his person.

"Something of a liberty, I should say, however many you include.
What I object to in these newspapers is the publicity. . . . But, if
you ask my opinion, that Extension fellow made a start with pullin'
your leg."

"You're