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“He’s young now, mother,” ses the gal, giving Ginger a nice smile.

“I tell you wot we might do,” ses Mrs. Gill, putting ‘er finger to her forehead and considering. “You and Joe go out and ‘ave your evening, and me and these gentlemen’ll go off together somewhere. I shall enjoy an outing; I ain’t ‘ad one for a long time.”

Ginger said it would be very nice if she thought it wouldn’t make ‘er too tired, and afore Sam or Peter could think of anything to say, she was upstairs putting ‘er bonnet on. They thought o’ plenty to say while they was sitting alone with Ginger waiting for ‘er.

“My idea was for the gal and your nevy to come too,” ses pore Ginger. “Then I thought we might lose ‘im and I would ‘ave a little chat with the gal, and show ‘er ‘ow foolish she was.”

“Well, you’ve done it now,” ses Sam. “Spoilt our evening.”

“P’r’aps good will come out of it,” ses Ginger. “If the old lady takes a fancy to us we shall be able to come agin, and then to please you, Sam, I’ll have a go to cut your nevy out.”

Sam stared at ‘im, and Peter stared too, and then they looked at each other and began to laugh till Ginger forgot where ‘e was and offered to put Sam through the winder. They was still quarrelling under their breath and saying wot they’d like to do to each other when Mrs. Gill came downstairs. Dressed up to the nines she was, and they walked down the street with a feeling that everybody was looking at em.

One thing that ‘elped to spoil the evening was that Mrs. Gill wouldn’t go into public’ouses, but to make up for it she went into sweet-stuff shops three times and ‘ad ices while they stood and watched ‘er and wondered ‘ow she could do it. And arter that she stopped at a place Poplar way, where there was a few swings and roundabouts and things. She was as skittish as a school-gal, and arter taking pore Sam on the roundabout till ‘e didn’t know whether he was on his ‘eels or his ‘ead, she got ‘im into a boat-swing and swung ‘im till he felt like a boy on ‘is fust v’y’ge. Arter that she took ‘im to the rifle gallery, and afore he had ‘ad three shots the man took the gun away from ‘im and threatened to send for the police.

It was an expensive evening for all of them, but as Ginger said when they got ‘ome they ‘ad broken the ice, and he bet Peter Russet ‘arf a dollar that afore two days ‘ad passed he’d take the nevy’s gal for a walk. He stepped round by ‘imself the next arternoon and made ‘imself agreeable to Mrs. Gill, and the day arter they was both so nice and kind that ‘e plucked up ‘is courage and offered to take Miss Gill to the Zoo.

She said “No” at fust, of course, but arter Ginger ‘ad pointed out that Joe was at work all day and couldn’t take ‘er ‘imself, and that ‘e was Joe’s uncle’s best pal, she began to think better of it.

“Why not?” ses her mother. “Joe wouldn’t mind. He wouldn’t be so silly as to be jealous o’ Mr. Ginger Dick.”

“Of course not,” ses the gal. “There’s nothing to be jealous of.”

She let ‘er mother and Ginger persuade ‘er arter a time, and then she went upstairs to clean herself, and put on a little silver brooch that Ginger said he ‘ad picked up coming along.

She took about three-quarters of an hour to get ready, but when she came down, Ginger felt that it was quite worth it. He couldn’t take ‘is eyes off ‘er, as the saying goes, and ‘e sat by ‘er side on the top of the omnibus like a man in a dream.