The boat, Rain Drop, was being doublehanded by a couple of past Cal 20 sailors.
Anything about the police sets them a talking at once. […] 'The blessed crushers are everywhere,' shouted one. 'I wish I'd been there to have had a shy at the eslops,' said another. And then a man sung out: 'O, don't I like the Bobbys?'
However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie—did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.
With one day flowing into another as the short, cold days seemed to hold Paddington Cove in the grip of yearning for spring, Old Maggie thought often of the village's libidinist. Jem's lewd ways had gone unchecked for so many years […]
