534 ANGEL PAVEMENT

Tm sure they'll let me have this fortnight's money
all right, Mrs. Pelumpton," he told her. "And then I'll
settle up at once, before I do anything else."

Mrs. Pelumpton stopped bustling about for a minute,
stood and looked at him, making herself as compact as
possible, so that she seemed exactly square from the
front; and suddenly said in a startlingly deep voice:
"Will you promise me one thing?"

Turgis said he would. He was ready to promise any-
thing to her.

"Well, it's this. Promise me to keep right off the drink
this next week or two,"

"I promise," he replied promptly. Two glasses of
bitter a week were usually enough for him at any time.
The Pelumptous were positive, however, that he had
been drinking heavily for weeks. Mr. Pelumpton, a beer
man himself, said that whisky made you look and behave
like that, if you could only get enough of it.

"In or out of work, that 'abit's bad," Mrs. Pelumpton
continued. "But far, far worse it is, out of work. Keep
off it for a bit. Don't touch a drop. I'm not one of these
prohibiters and temperancers—though I did sign the
pledge when I was a girl, but then I wouldn't 'ave
touched a drop then anyhow, didn't like the taste of it—
but I do say that a young feller like yourself who's going
to 'ave to look for a job is better without a single drop,
if only for the sake of not being smelt."

'Tm sure you're right, Mrs. Pelumpton," said Turgis,
who was hoping that this good advice mteant that she
was willing to let him stay on while he was looking for
another job.

"I know I am. And what's just 'appened—'cos you ran
talk about business until you're blue in the face, but you