wasn' no fambly about it, nor yet no 'eads. Me bein' 'andy an' dressed
up, with frizzy 'air, they stood me on a tub with a 'oop, makin' believe
'twas for Miss Montagu to jump through; but of course she didn', reely.
When she came round to me she'd only smile and touch me playful under
the chin; and that made the sixpenny seats say, ''Ow womanly!' or, 'Only
think! able to ride like that and so fond of children!' Matter of fact,
she 'ad none; and her 'usband, Mike O'Halloran, used to beat her for it
sometimes, when he'd had a drop of What-killed-Aunty. He was an
Irishman."

"You didn't start to tell me about Mr. O'Halloran."

"No. He wasn' your sort at all; and besides, he's dead. But about
Black Sultan--Miss Montagu used to rest 'im, 'alf-way in his turn, while
the clown they called Bimbo--but his real name was Ernest Stanley--as't
a riddle about a policeman and a red 'errin' in a newspaper. She always
rested alongside o' me; and I always stood in the same place, right
over a ring-bolt where they made fast one of the stays for the trapeze;
and regular as Black Sultan rested, he'd up with his off hind foot and
rub the pastern-bone, very soft, on the ring-bolt. So one day I
unscrewed an' sneaked it, jus' to see what he'd do. When he felt for it
an' missed it, he gave me a look. That's all. An' that's what's the
matter with '_er_."

"But what can she be missing?" asked the Second Nurse. "She had nothing
about her but an old purse, and nothing in the purse but a
penny-ha'penny."

"It don't sound much, but we might try it."