"One can't always be living like a curit," he said.
"No fear," said Pierce, trying to play up to him.
But Kipps had the top place in that conversation.
"My Lor'!" said Kipps, when Pierce had gone, "but wasn't my mouth and 'ed bad this morning before I 'ad a pick-me-up!"
"Whad jer 'ave?"
"Anchovy on 'ot buttered toast. It's the very best pick-me-up there is. You trust me, Rodgers. I never take no other and I don't advise you to. See?"
And when pressed for further particulars, he said again he had been "fair all round the town, with a Nactor chap" he knew. They asked curiously all he had done and he said, "Well, what do you think?" And when they pressed for still further details he said there were things little boys ought not to know and laughed darkly and found them some huckaback to roll.
And in this manner for a space did Kipps fend off the contemplation of the "key of the street" that Shalford had presented him.
§3
This sort of thing was all very well when junior apprentices were about, but when Kipps was alone with himself it served him not at all. He was uncomfortable inside and his skin was uncomfortable, and Head and Mouth palliated perhaps, but certainly not cured, were still with him. He felt, to tell the truth, nasty and dirty and extremely disgusted with
