Читать книгу Charles Peace, or The Adventures of a Notorious Burglar онлайн

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Miss Stanbridge laughed.

“You’re a strange lad,” she ejaculated—​“an old head upon a young pair of shoulders. So you would do that, eh?”

“Certainly; all’s fair in trade, and the fun of it is that the Essex fish are the best of all, being bred in cold weather, while t’others have to be bred in warm ponds, and are not anything like so hardy.”

“You’ll do, I can see,” said his patroness.

“But did the man bring a hand net with the fish, marm?” inquired the boy. “It don’t do to mess ’em in your hands.”

“No, I don’t know that he did; but I dare say we have such a thing. My dear,” she said, with a dubious smile, “will you go to the lumber-room, and see if you can find one?”

Her elderly companion hesitated for a moment, then went upstairs. In a few minutes she returned with a bundle of nets of various cordage, with handles of stained wood.

These the boy said he might be able to sell with the fish.

Susan crammed a huge packet in his pocket which contained bread and meat—​this was to serve him as a dinner; and he went gaily into the streets.