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"A trifle more than your six feet, about your colour of hair and eyes, and with a trick of smilin' that would melt the heart of an exciseman, and O'Connell's own at a joke, barrin' a time or two that he got hold of a pile of papers from the ould country. By the grave of St. Shon! thin he was as dry of fun as a piece of blotting paper.
Dey'd done settle der 'spute, en dey wuz settin' dar des ez smilin' ez a basket er chips. Dey pass the time er day wid Brer Rabbit, en den dey ax 'im what he got in de jug. Brer Rabbit hummed en haw'd, en looked sorter sollum.
"When I got to the little tent he sleeps in, there he was sittin' in front of it, as smilin' as a basket of chips, and he bade me good-mornin' as if I had been a tenant comin' to pay him his rent; and then he said that before we went on with the business between us, there was some things he would like to show me, and he had 'em all ready.
And that sour, surly look is all gone. Why, he's almost smilin'. "Well, well!" says I. "How's valetin' these days?" "Oh, it's you, is it?" says he. "Why, I'm getting along fine. Of course, I never could be quite so good at it as as Mr. Nivens was, but he is kind enough to say that I am doing very well. Really, though, it is quite simple.
"She lost herself in the crowd," said the officer. "She was scared out of her wits," Mrs. Thropp sobbed. The officer shook his head. "She was smilin' when I yelled at her. It looks to me like a get-away." "A runaway?" Mrs. Thropp gasped. "Yes,'m. I'd have went after her, but I was cut off by a taxi."
I was a bit feared on the squire, he bein' a great gentleman down in Lexhoe, and I darn't go near till I was called. And says he, smilin': "'What's a' this ye a sen, child? it mun be a dream, for ye know there's na sic a thing as a bo or a freet in a' the world. But whatever it was, ma little maid, sit ye down and tell all about it from first to last.
Smilin' Lou did once an' you notice to-night he left the kegs be. So they get a good grade of whisky from the liquor houses. And they pass up the best, imported stuff that can be got to-day. We'll have regular customers for that; and you can gamble they'll pay the price!" He laughed at some secret joke which he straightway shared with Casey.
And as he drifts out, smilin', pleased and hopeful, I glances over the spring-water bottle, to see Mr. Robert standin' there listenin' with a grin on. "Congratulations!" says he. "That peroration of yours was a classic, Torchy; the true Chesterfield spirit, if not the form. I am tempted to utilize your talent for that sort of thing once more. What do you say?"
It made my heart bleed to see the fight he put up, but he finished six feet to the bad and fell across the mark on his face, sobbin' like a child. It's the game ones that cry when they're licked; analyze a smilin' loser and you'll find the yellow streak. I lifted him to his feet, but he was shakin' like a bush in the wind. "Them shoes!" he wailed. "Them damned shoes!"
I wondered why he hadn't told her about this luck o' his, but I kep' quiet an' watched to see if he was bluffin'. "I was cleanin' the walk off when he come home nex' night. Sure enough, there was his arms laid full o' bundles. An' his face it done me good to see it. "'Come on up an' help get dinner, he yelled out, like a kid, an' I thought I actually seen him smilin'.
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