[Illustration: "You'd better go upstairs and put on some decent
clothes."]

Dixon looked at 'er for a moment and then he 'ung his 'ead.

"I've been thinking o' you and of seeing you agin every day since I went
away, Julia," he ses. "You'd be the same to me if you was dressed in
rags."

He went upstairs without another word, and old Burge, who was coming
down, came down five of 'em at once owing to Dixon speaking to 'im afore
he knew who 'e was. The old man was still grumbling when Dixon came down
agin, and said he believed he'd done it a-purpose.

"You run away from a good 'ome," he ses, "and the best wife in Wapping,
and you come back and frighten people 'arf out o' their lives. I never
see such a feller in all my born days."

"I was so glad to get 'ome agin I didn't think," ses Dixon. "I hope
you're not 'urt."

He started telling them all about his 'ardships while they were at tea,
but none of 'em seemed to care much about hearing 'em. Bob said that the
sea was all right for men, and that other people were sure not to like
it.

"And you brought it all on yourself," ses Charlie. "You've only got
yourself to thank for it. I 'ad thought o' picking a bone with you over
those letters you wrote."