Life was not altogether a lark.

The calling in of a policeman seemed at the moment a pantomime touch.

But when it became manifest that Mr. Garvace was in a fury of

vindictiveness, the affair took on a different complexion. The way in

which the policeman made a note of everything and aspirated nothing

impressed the sensitive mind of Polly profoundly. Polly presently

found himself straightening up ties to the refrain of "'E then 'It you

on the 'Ed and----"

In the dormitory that night Parsons had become heroic. He sat on the

edge of the bed with his head bandaged, packing very slowly and

insisting over and again: "He ought to have left my window alone, O'

Man. He didn't ought to have touched my window."

Polly was to go to the police court in the morning as a witness. The

terror of that ordeal almost overshadowed the tragic fact that Parsons

was not only summoned for assault, but "swapped," and packing his box.

Polly knew himself well enough to know he would make a bad witness. He

felt sure of one fact only, namely, that "'E then 'It 'Im on the 'Ed

and--" All the rest danced about in his mind now, and how it would

dance about on the morrow Heaven only knew. Would there be a

cross-examination? Is it perjoocery to make a slip? People did

sometimes perjuice themselves. Serious offence.

The History of Mr Polly