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"Ho, lor' lumme, it's 'im! Blimy, it's the Guv'nor--'ow do, Guv!" and
shooting immaculate cuffs over bony wrists he extended a clawlike hand.
"How are you, Old Un?"
"Well, sir, what with the rheumatix an' a stiff j'int or two an' a touch
o' lumbager, not to mention all my other ailments, I ain't quite s' spry
as I was!"
"But you look very well!"
"That's where your heyes deceives you, Guv. A great sufferer I be,
though patient under haffliction, ho, yus--except for a swear now an'
then which do me a power o' good--yus! If I was to tell you all the woes
as my poor old carkiss is hair to, you could write a book on 'em--a big
'un. I got everything the matter wi' me, I 'ave, from a thick ear an'
broke nose as I took in Brummagem sixty an' five years ago to a hactive
liver."
"A what?" enquired Ravenslee.
"A hactive liver. Lord, Guv, my liver gets that hactive lately as I
can't set still--Joe knows, ax Joe! All as I ain't got o' human woes is
toothache, not 'avin' no teeth to ache, y' see, an' them s' rotten as it
'ud make yer 'eart bleed.


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