shelter from the rain without being insulted, etc., etc., etc. [She is
conducted by the more sympathetic demonstrators back to her plinth,
where she resumes her seat and struggles with her emotion].
THE BYSTANDER. He ain't a tec. He's a blooming busybody: that's what he
is. I tell you, look at his boots.
THE NOTE TAKER [turning on him genially] And how are all your people
down at Selsey?
THE BYSTANDER [suspiciously] Who told you my people come from Selsey?
THE NOTE TAKER. Never you mind. They did. [To the girl] How do you come
to be up so far east? You were born in Lisson Grove.
THE FLOWER GIRL [appalled] Oh, what harm is there in my leaving Lisson
Grove? It wasn't fit for a pig to live in; and I had to pay
four-and-six a week. [In tears] Oh, boo--hoo--oo--
THE NOTE TAKER. Live where you like; but stop that noise.
THE GENTLEMAN [to the girl] Come, come! he can't touch you: you have a
right to live where you please.
A SARCASTIC BYSTANDER [thrusting himself between the note taker and the
gentleman] Park Lane, for instance. I'd like to go into the Housing
Question with you, I would.
THE FLOWER GIRL [subsiding into a brooding melancholy over her basket,
and talking very low-spiritedly to herself] I'm a good girl, I am.
THE SARCASTIC BYSTANDER [not attending to her] Do you know where _I_
come from?
THE NOTE TAKER [promptly] Hoxton.
Titterings. Popular interest in the note taker's performance increases.
THE SARCASTIC ONE [amazed] Well, who said I didn't? Bly me! You know
everything, you do.
THE FLOWER GIRL [still nursing her sense of injury] Ain't no call to
meddle with me, he ain't.
THE BYSTANDER [to her] Of course he ain't. Don't you stand it from him.
[To the note taker] See here: what call have you to know about people
what never offered to meddle with you? Where's your warrant?
SEVERAL BYSTANDERS [encouraged by this seeming point of law] Yes:
where's your warrant?
THE FLOWER GIRL. Let him say what he likes. I don't want to have no
truck with him.
THE BYSTANDER. You take us for dirt under your feet, don't you? Catch
you taking liberties with a gentleman!
THE SARCASTIC BYSTANDER. Yes: tell HIM where he come from if you want
to go fortune-telling.
THE NOTE TAKER. Cheltenham, Harrow, Cambridge, and India.
THE GENTLEMAN. Quite right. [Great laughter. Reaction in the note
taker's favor. Exclamations of He knows all about it. Told him proper.
Hear him tell the toff where he come from? etc.]. May I ask, sir, do
you do this for your living at a music hall?