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Diamond's Friends 195
i'How does he know your grandmother, then? He does not look like one of her sort."
" Oh no, sir! He's a good boy—quite."
Here she tapped her forehead with her finger in a significant manner.
"What do you mean by that?" asked the gentleman, while Diamond looked on smiling.
"The cabbies call him God's baby," she whispered. "He's not right in the head, you know. A tile loose."
Still Diamond, though he heard every word, and understood it too, kept on smiling. What could it matter what people called him, so long as he did nothing that he ought not to do? And, besides, God's baby was surely the best of names!
" Well, my little man, and what can you do?" asked the gentleman, turning towards him—just for the sake of saying something.
" Drive a cab," said Diamond.
"Good; and what else?" he continued; for, accepting what the girl had said, he regarded the still sweetness of Diamond's face as a sign of silliness, and wished to be kind to the poor little fellow.
" Nurse a baby," said Diamond.
« Well—and what else?"
" Clean father's boots, and make him a bit of toast for his tea."
"You're a useful little man," said the gentleman. "What else can you do?"
"Not much that I know of," said Diamond. "I can't curry a horse, except somebody puts me on his back. So I don't count that." |
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