any, recognised each
other intuitively. The handsomest young gentleman in England could not
have interested these handsome young sinners as the dark-brown,
grey-haired old vagabond did. Their eyes stole to him. Heaven knows
what they talked, for the girls knew no English, but they whispered; they
could not write little notes, so they kept passing different objects, to
which Gipsy and Italian promptly attached a meaning. Scolding them
helped not. It was "a pensive sight."

To impress me with a due sense of his honesty and high character, the
professor informed me one day that he was personally acquainted, as he
verily believed, with every policeman in England. "You see, rya," he
remarked, "any man as is so well known couldn't never do nothing wrong
now,--could he?"

Innocent, unconscious, guileless air--and smile! I shall never see its
equal. I replied--

"Yes; I think I can see you, Puro, walking down between two lines of
hundreds of policemen--every one pointing after you and saying, 'There
goes that good honest --- the honestest man in England!'"

"Avo, rya," he cried, eagerly turning to me, as if delighted and
astonished that I had found out the truth. "That's just what they all
pens of me, an' just what I seen 'em a-doin' every time."

"You know all the police," I remarked. "Do you know any turnkeys?"

He reflected an instant, and then replied, artlessly--

"I don't jin many o' them. But I can jist tell you a story. Once at
Wimbledown, when the _kooroo-mengroes_ were _odoi_ (when the troopers
were there), I used to get a pound a week carryin' things. One day, when
I had well on to two stun on my _dumo_ (back), the chief of police sees
me an' says, 'There's that old scoundrel again! that villain gives the
police more trouble than any other man in the country!' 'Thank you,
sir,' says I, wery respectable to him. 'I'm glad to see you're earnin' a
'onest livin' for once,' says he. 'How much do you get for carryin' that
there bundle?' 'A sixpence, rya!' says I. 'It's twice as much as you
ought to have,' says he; 'an' I'd be glad to carry it myself for the
money.' 'All right, sir,' says I, touchin' my hat and goin' off, for he
was a wery nice gentleman. Rya," he exclaimed, with an air of placid
triumph, "do you think the head-police his selfus would a spoke in them
wery words to me if he hadn't a thought I was a good man?"

"Well, let's get to work, old Honesty. What is the Rommanis for to
hid