Page:While the Billy Boils, 1913.djvu/140

 'Well, if you can make yourself comfortable, I'll be only too glad for you to stay,' said Brown, wearily.

'You'd better invite some woman you know to come on a visit, and pass her off as your sister,' said Brown to his wife, while Steelman was gone for the beer. 'I've made a mess of it.'

Mrs. Brown said, 'I knew you would.'

Steelman knew his men.

But at last Brown reckoned that he could stand it no longer. The thought of it made him so wild that he couldn't work. He took a day off to get thoroughly worked up in, came home that night full to the chin of indignation and Dunedin beer, and tried to kick Steelman out. And Steelman gave him a hiding.

Next morning Steelman was sitting beside Brown's bed with a saucer of vinegar, some brown paper, a raw beef-steak, and a bottle of soda.

'Well, what have you got to say for yourself now, Brown?' he said, sternly, 'Ain't you jolly well ashamed of yourself to come home in the beastly state you did last night, and insult a guest in your house, to say nothing of an old friend and—perhaps the best friend you ever had, if you only knew it? Anybody else would have given you in charge and got you three months for the assault. You ought to have some consideration for your wife and children, and your own character—even if you haven't any for your old mate's feelings. Here, drink this, and let me fix you up a bit; the missis has got the breakfast waiting.'