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He's got a gift for helpin' down-and-outers. You got class, Kid; you certainly rhinestone this whole bunch of red men. Why, you belong in French heels and a boodwar cap; that's how I dope you." "There must be a chance for a girl like you in Nome," Thomas continued, thoughtfully. "You'd make a good hand with children. Suppose I try to find you a place as governess?" "Would you?"
It was not till they began to think of retiring for the night that it was remembered that there was no possibility of putting up Billy in the cottage, for Tottie occupied the closet of the "boodwar."
Silently they approached the cottage-window and looked in. Gaff started back with a slight exclamation of surprise, for his eye fell on the new and strange furniture of the "boodwar." Billy looked round with a searching eye. "There's nobody in," he said at length, "but look, daddy, the old clock's there yet."
Jerry thrust the cradle aside hastily. "Neither have I, uncle, neither have I," he said; "not chick nor child. If you ain't too tired, let me show you over the house. I'm sorry the elevator isn't running, so you could go up to the cupolo. This room's a sort of e pluribus unum, many in one; kind of a boodwar and kitchen combined. The other rooms ain't inclosed yet, but they're safe enough outside.
"Come on out o' this boodwar and lave th' ould wan be." And they left him smirking, smiling, twitching his faded lips, and making vague sounds, lying there asleep in his dotage. And all night long he lay mumbling his gums and smiling, his sleep undisturbed by the stir and lights and tramp of feet around him. And all night long in the next room lay his son, white as marble and very still.
The "boodwar" was empty at least of human beings, though there was the Dutch clock with the horrified countenance in the corner, and the new clock near it, and the portraits and the great four-poster, and all the other articles of elegance and luxury with which Mrs Gaff had filled her humble dwelling.
Gaff sat in the chimney-corner of the "Boodwar" smoking his pipe and staring at Shrieky, which, having survived the voyage home, had been hung up in a cage in the little window, and was at that time engaged in calling loudly for Squeaky, who, having also survived the voyage, was grubbing up stones and mud at the front door.
Haco deigned no reply, but turned to Gildart and held out his hand. "You've not gone to stay at Cove yet, I see," said Gildart. "Not yet, lad, but I go to-night at nine o'clock. You see Mrs Gaff is a-goin' to visit a relation for a week, an' wants me to take care o' the house, the boodwar, as she calls it, though why she calls it by that name is more than I can tell.
Mrs Gaff would not at first agree to take the cane chairs, observing truly that they "was too slim," but she was shaken in her mind when the shopman said they were quite the thing for a lady's boudoir. She immediately demanded to know what a "boodwar" was. The shopman told her that it was an elegant apartment in which young ladies were wont to sit and read poetry, and think of their absent lovers.
The cheque was taken up and presented by Gaff on the following morning, but to the honest man's dismay, Lizzie declined it positively, though she accompanied her refusal with many earnest expressions of gratitude, and kissed the seaman's hard hand at parting. Gaff returned to the "Boodwar," lit his German pipe with the cheque, and said, "I knowed she wouldn't tak' it dear girl."
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