Page:Hopkinson Smith--In Dickens's London.djvu/164

IN DICKENS'S LONDON necessary until the warden returned home, wherever that home happened to be, whether over the fruiterer's or elsewhere; and on the morrow I could return—better make it in the afternoon—say four o'clock, when he would hand me the answer.

And I did.

And this was it:

"Yes, the Warden has no objection. But he insists on one thing, and that is that you reward me handsomely before you begin work."

And the painter did—and was glad to—considering how hard the industrious night-owl had worked—dropping the coins in the outstretched palms of the sexton, the verger, or the beadle he cannot remember which, nor does he much care. 100