Slogger with a critical grin, "but I should 'ave thought 'em not
sufficiently waterproof in wet weather."

"Vell, they ain't much use for that, Slog--eh, Villum; but you should
see the dazzling display they makes in sunshine. W'y, you can see me
half a mile off w'en I chance to be walking in Regent Street or drivin'
in the Park. But I value them chiefly because of the frequent and
pleasant talks they get me with the ladies."

"You don't mean for to say, Robin, that the ladies ever holds you by the
button-'oles?"

"No, I don't; but I holds _them_ wi' the buttons. This is the way of
it. W'en I chance to see a wery pretty lady--not one o' your beauties,
you know; I don't care a dump for them stuck-up creatures! but one o'
your sweet, amiable sort, with souls above buttons, an' faces one likes
to look at and to kiss w'en you've a right to; vell, w'en I sees one o'
these I brushes up again' 'er, an' 'ooks on with my buttons to some of
'er togs.

"If she takes it ill, looks cross, and 'alf inclined to use strong
language, I makes a 'umble apology, an' gets undone as fast as possible,
but if she larfs, and says, `Stoopid boy; w'y don't you look before
you?' or suthin o' that sort, I just 'ooks on another tag to another
button w'en we're a fumblin' at the first one, and so goes on till we
get to be quite sociable over it--I might almost say confidential. Once
or twice I've been the victim of misjudgment, and got a heavy slap on
the face from angelic hands that ought to 'ave known better, but on the
'ole I'm willin' to take my chance."

"Not a bad notion," remarked the Slogger; "especially for a pretty
little chap like you, Robin."

"Right you are," replied the other, "but you needn't try on the dodge
yourself, for it would never pay with a big ugly grampus like you,
Villum."

Having thus run into a pleasant little chat, the two waifs proceeded to
compare notes, in the course of which comparison the Slogger gave an
outline of his recent history. He had been engaged in several
successful burglaries, but had been caught in the act of pocket-picking,
for which offence he had spent some weeks in prison. While there a
visitor had spoken to him very earnestly, and advised him to try an
honest life, as being, to say the least of it, easier work than
thieving. He had made the attempt. Through the influence of the same
prison-visitor he had obtained a situation, from which he had been
advanced to the responsible positio