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Updated: May 23, 2025
And suddenly she thought, with a pang of joy, that no longer would she need to nerve herself for the cruel journey to the markets in the morning. Chook would drive down in his own cart, and she would be waiting on his return with a good breakfast. They had gone up in the world like a rocket. The marriage of Pinkey, three years ago, had affected Mrs Partridge like the loss of a limb.
Five minutes later Chook slithered down a veranda post, a free man, and walked quietly to the tram. Six months after the death of Mrs Yabsley, Ada and Mrs Herring sat in the back parlour of the Angel sipping brandy. They had drunk their fill and it was time to be going, but Ada had no desire to move.
The street was quiet again, but some groups still lingered, discussing with relish the details of the outrage, searching their memories for stories of brutal stoushings that had ended in the death of the victim. An hour later Jonah and Chook, picking the most roundabout way, reached home. The family was in bed, and the house in darkness.
But when he told her of the invitation, she flushed crimson. "She asked yous to tea, did she? The old devil!" "W'y," said Chook mortified. "W'y? 'Cause she knows father 'ud kill yer, if yer put yer nose inside the door." "Oh! would 'e?" cried Chook, bristling. "My word, yes! A bloke once came after Lil, an' 'e run 'im out so quick 'e forgot 'is 'at, an' waited at the corner till I brought it."
"Well, I s'pose a sleep's the next best thing," replied Chook, and in a minute was snoring. Jonah finished undressing slowly. As he unlaced his boots, he noticed a dark patch on one toe. It looked as if he had kicked something wet. He examined the stain without repugnance, and thought of the bricklayer. "Serve the cow right," he thought. "'Ope it stiffens 'im!"
"An' as fer the good 'ome I came from, I wasn't wanted there, an' was 'arf starved; an' now the butcher picks the best joint an' if I lift me finger, a big 'ulkin' feller falls over 'imself ter run an' do wot I want." Chook listened without a smile. Then his lips twitched and his eyes turned misty. Pinkey ran at him, crying, "Yer silly juggins, if I've got yous, I've got all I want."
And she hung on him like a child, her wonderful hair, the colour of a new penny, heightening the bloodless pallor of the old man's face. The stolid grey eyes turned misty, and, in silence, he slowly patted his daughter's cheek. Chook kept his distance, feeling that he was not wanted. Mrs Partridge, who had recovered her nerve, came as near cursing as her placid, selfish nature would permit.
His lips contracted in a cynical grin as he remembered the figure he cut when Chook appeared. He decided to look on the affair as a joke. But again his thoughts returned to the child, and he was surprised with a vibration of tenderness sweet as honey in his veins. A strange yearning came over him like a physical weakness for the touch of his son's body.
"I tell yer I'm as dry as a bone," cried Chook, losing patience. "Yer think yer live in Botany Street, but yer don't. Yer live in Foveaux Street, an' this is the key of the 'ouse." "I think I live in Botany Street, but I've moved to Foveaux Street," repeated Mrs Partridge, but the words conveyed no meaning to her mind. She came closer to Chook.
Behind them a hammer fell with a tremendous thud, and a voice cried, "Try yer strength only a penny, only a penny." "'Ow'll that suit yer?" inquired Stinky, with a malicious grin, for he counted on his superior weight and muscle to overcome his rival. "Let 'er go!" cried Chook. Stinky spat on his hands, and seized the wooden mallet. Cripes, he would show Pinkey which was the better man of the two!
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