"
"I ha' heerd on him in the stable, but I never see the brat
afore. Come, old girl, let bygones be bygones, and gie us a
kiss, and we'll go to bed."
The cabman kept his cab in another yard, although he had
his room in this. He was often late in coming home, and was
not one to take notice of children, especially when he was
tipsy, which was oftener than not. Hence, if he had ever seen
Diamond, he did not know him. But his wife knew him well enough,
as did every one else who lived all day in the yard. She was a
good-natured woman. It was she who had got the fire lighted and
the tea ready for them when Diamond and his mother came home
from Sandwich. And her husband was not an ill-natured man
either, and when in the morning he recalled not only Diamond's
visit, but how he himself had behaved to his wife, he was very
vexed with himself, and gladdened his poor wife's heart by
telling her how sorry he was. And for a whole week after, he did
not go near the public-house, hard as it was to avoid it, seeing
a certain rich brewer had built one, like a trap to catch souls
and bodies in, at almost every corner he had to pass on his way
home. Indeed, he was never quite so bad after that, though it
was some time before he began really to reform.
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