We_ know all about it!

_Mr. H._ Then you know more than what _I_ do. There's nothing between
me and anybody where _I_ live. But I'm going out to Ostralia, though.
I've saved up 'alf of what I want already.

_Polly_ (_banteringly_). You _are_ a good boy. Save up enough for _me_
too!

_Mr. H._ (_surveying her with frank disparagement_). _You_? Oh, lor!
Not if I know it!

_Flo_ (_with an exaggerated sigh_). Oh dear, I wish I was over there.
They say they're advertising for maidservants--fifteen shillings a
week, and the washing put out. I'd marry a prince or a lord duke,
perhaps, when I got there. ARTHUR sent me a fashion-book.

_Mr. H._ So he sent me one, too. It was the Autumn fashions. They get
their Autumn in the Spring out there, you know, and their Christmas
Day comes in the middle of July. Seems rum, doesn't it?

_Flo_. He sent me his photo, too. He _has_ improved.

_Polly_. You go out there, ERNIE, and p'raps _you_'ll improve. [_FLO
giggles._

_Mr. H._ (_hurt_). There, that's enough--good-bye.

[_Fausse sortie No. 2._

_Polly_ (_persuasively_). 'Ere, stop! I want to speak to you. Is your
girl here?

_Mr. H._ (_glad of this opportunity_). My girl? I ain't got no girl. I
don't believe in 'em--a lot of--

_Polly_ (_interrupting_). A lot of what? Go on--don't mind _us_.

_Mr. H._ It don't matter. _I_ know what they are.

_Polly_. But you like Miss PINKNEY, though,--at the shop in Queen's
Road,--_you_ know.

_Mr. H._ (_by way of proclaiming his indifference_). Miss PINKNEY? She
ought to be Mrs. SOMEBODY by this time,--she's getting on for thirty.

_Polly_. Ah, but she don't look it, does she: not with that lovely
coloured 'air and complexion? You knew she painted, I dessay? She
don't look--well, not more than thirty-two, at the outside. She
spends a lot on her 'air, I know. She sent our GEORGY one day to the
'air-dresser's for a bottle of the stuff she puts on, and the barber
sez: "What, do _you_ dye your 'air?" To little _GEORGY_! fancy!

_Mr. H._ Well, she may dye herself magenter for all I care. (_Changing
the subject._) ARTHUR's found a lot of old friends at Melbun,--first
person he come upon was a policeman as used to be at King Street; and
you remember that Miss LAVENDER he used to go out with? (_Speaking at_
FLO.) Well, her brother was on board the steamer he went in.

_Polly_. It's all right, FLO, ain't it? so long as it wasn't Miss
LAVENDER herself! (_To Mr. H._) I say, ain't you got