I was then faint for want of food, so I looked out for a tea-shop or
restaurant.
I passed several such places before I found the modest house I wanted.
Then I stepped into it rather nervously and took the seat nearest the
door.
It was an oblong room with red plush seats along the walls behind a line
of marble-topped tables. The customers were all men, chiefly clerks and
warehousemen, I thought, and the attendants were girls in black frocks
and white aprons.
There seemed to be a constant fire of free-and-easy flirtation going on
between them. At one table a man in a cloth cap was saying to the girl
who had served him:
"What's the damage, dearie?"
"One roast, one veg, two breads--'levenpence, and no liberties, mister."
"Sunday off, Em'ly?" said a youth in a red tie at another table, and
being told it was, he said:
"Then what do you say to 'oppin' up to 'Endon and 'aving a day in a
boat?"
I had to wait some time before anybody came to attend to me, but at
length a girl from the other end of the room, who had taken no part in
these amatory exchanges, stepped up and asked what I wanted.
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