“And this gentleman who has come with me will pay him for his trouble,” said Mrs. Boffin. “And Mr. Sloppy, whenever you come to my house, be sure you never go away without having had a good dinner of meat, beer, vegetables, and pudding.”
This still further brightened the face of affairs; for, the highly sympathetic Sloppy, first broadly staring and grinning, and then roaring with laughter, Toddles and Poddles followed suit, and Johnny trumped the trick. T and P considering these favourable circumstances for the resumption of that dramatic descent upon Johnny, again came across-country hand-in-hand upon a buccaneering expedition; and this having been fought out in the chimney corner behind Mrs. Higden’s chair, with great valour on both sides, those desperate pirates returned hand-in-hand to their stools, across the dry bed of a mountain torrent.
“You must tell me what I can do for you, Betty my friend,” said Mrs. Boffin confidentially, “if not today, next time.”
“Thank you all the same, ma’am, but I want nothing for myself. I can work. I’m strong. I can walk twenty mile if I’m put to it.” Old Betty was proud, and said it with a sparkle in her bright eyes.
“Yes, but there are some little comforts that you wouldn’t be the worse for,” returned Mrs. Boffin. “Bless ye, I wasn’t born a lady any more than you.”
“It seems to me,” said Betty, smiling, “that you were born a lady, and a true one, or there never was a lady born. But I couldn’t take anything from you, my dear. I never did take anything from anyone. It ain’t that I’m not grateful, but I love to earn it better.”
“Well, well!” returned Mrs. Boffin. “I only spoke of little things, or I wouldn’t have taken the liberty.”