Clover, and I'll do it."
"I shan't say the word, because I know you couldn't live without a
glass of beer. There's no harm in that. But when--"
The remark was left incomplete.
"Hush!" came from Mrs. Bubb in the same moment. "Wasn't that the
front door?"
All listened. A heavy step was ascending the stairs.
"Only Mr. Cheeseman," said the landlady with a sigh of agitation.
"Of course it couldn't be Polly yet."
Not till the repast was comfortably despatched did Mr. Gammon give a
sign that it might now be well to inform Mrs. Clover of what had
happened. He nodded gravely to Mrs. Bubb, who with unaffected
nervousness, causing her to ramble and stumble for many minutes in
mazes of circumlocution, at length conveyed the fact to her anxious
listener that Polly Sparkes had said something or other which
implied a knowledge of Mr. Clover's whereabouts. Committed to this
central fact, and urged by Mrs. Clover's growing impatience, the
good woman came out at length with her latest version of Polly's
remarkable utterance.
"And what she said was this, Mrs.
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