Sentimental Tommy

The celebrated Tommy first comes into view on a dirty London stair, and he was in sexlessgarments, which were all he had, and he was five, and so though we are looking at him, we must doit sideways, lest he sit down hurriedly to hide them. That inscrutable face, which made the clubmenof his later days uneasy and even puzzled the ladies while he was making love to them, was alreadyhis, except when he smiled at one of his pretty thoughts or stopped at an open door to sniff apotful. On his way up and down the stair he often paused to sniff, but he never asked for anything;his mother had warned him against it, and he carried out her injunction with almost unnecessaryspirit, declining offers before they were made, as when passing a room, whence came the smell offried fish, he might call in, "I don't not want none of your fish," or "My mother says I don't notwant the littlest bit," or wistfully, "I ain't hungry," or more wistfully still, "My mother says I ain'thungry." His mother heard of this and was angry, crying that he had let the neighbors knowsomething she was anxious to conceal, but what he had revealed to them Tommy could not makeout, and when he questioned her artlessly, she took him with sudden passion to her flat breast, andoften after that she looked at him long and woefully and wrung her hands.