Selected Short Fiction Page 33

  In what way Miss Wozenham lower down on the other side of the way reconciled it to her feelings as a lady (which she is not) to entice Mary Anne Perkinsop from my service is best known to herself, I do not know and I do not wish to know how opinions are formed at Wozenham’s on any point. But Mary Anne Perkinsop although I behaved handsomely to her and she behaved un-handsomely to me was worth her weight in gold as overawing lodgers without driving them away, for lodgers would be far more sparing of their bells with Mary Anne than I ever knew them be with Maid or Mistress, which is a great triumph especially when accompanied with a cast in the eye and a bag of bones, but it was the steadiness of her way with them through her father’s having failed in Pork. It was Mary Anne’s looking so respectable in her person and being so strict in her spirits that conquered the tea-and-sugarest gentleman (for he weighed them both in a pair of scales every morning) that I have ever had to deal with and no lamb grew meeker, still it afterwards came round to me that Miss Wozenham happening to pass and seeing Mary Anne take in the milk of a milkman that made free in a rosy-faced way (I think no worse of him) with every girl in the street but was quite frozen up like the statue at Charing Cross by her, saw Mary Anne’s value in the lodging business and went as high as one pound per quarter more, consequently Mary Anne with not a word betwixt us says ‘If you will provide yourself Mrs Lirriper in a month from this day I have already done the same,’ which hurt me and I said so, and she then hurt me more by insinuating that her father having failed in Pork had laid her open to it.

  My dear I do assure you it’s a harassing thing to know what kind of girls to give the preference to, for if they are lively they get bell’d off their legs and if they are sluggish you suffer from it yourself in complaints and if they are sparkling-eyed they get made love to and if they are smart in their persons they try on your Lodger’s bonnets and if they are musical I defy you to keep them away from bands and organs, and allowing for any difference you like in their heads their heads will be always out of window just the same. And then what the gentlemen like in girls the ladies don‘t, which is fruitful hot water for all parties, and then there’s temper though such a temper as Caroline Maxey’s I hope not often. A good-looking black-eyed girl was Caroline and a comely-made girl to your cost when she did break out and laid about her, as took place first and last through a new-married couple come to see London in the first floor and the lady very high and it Was supposed not liking the good looks of Caroline having none of her own to spare, but anyhow she did try Caroline though that was no excuse. So one afternoon Caroline comes down into the kitchen flushed and Bashing, and she says to me ‘Mrs Lirriper that woman in the first has aggravated me past bearing’, I says ‘Caroline keep your temper’, Caroline says with a curdling laugh ’Keep my temper? You’re right Mrs Lirriper, so I will. Capital D her!’ bursts out Caroline (you might have struck me into the centre of the earth with a feather when she said it) ‘I’ll give her a touch of the temper that I keep!’ Caroline downs with her hair my dear, screeches and rushes upstairs, I following as fast as my trembling legs could bear me, but before I got into the room the dinner cloth and pink and white service all dragged off upon the floor with a crash and the new married couple on their backs in the firegrate, him with the shovel and tongs and a dish of cucumber across him and a mercy it was summer-time. ‘Caroline’ I says ‘be calm’, but she catches off my cap and tears it in her teeth as she passes me, then pounces on the new married lady makes her a bundle of ribbons takes her by the two ears and knocks the back of her head upon the carpet Murder screaming all the time Policemen running down the street and Wozenham’s windows (judge of my feelings when I came to know it) thrown up and Miss Wozenham calling out from the balcony with crocodile’s tears ‘It’s Mrs Lirriper been overcharging somebody to madness - she’ll be murdered - I always thought so - Pleeseman save her!’ My dear four of them and Caroline behind the chiffoniere attacking with the poker and when disarmed prize fighting with her double fists, and down and up and up and down and dreadful! But I couldn’t bear to see the poor young creature roughly handled and her hair torn when they got the better of her, and I says Gentlemen Policemen pray remember that her sex is the sex of your mothers and sisters and your sweethearts, and God bless them and you!’ And there she was sitting down on the ground handcuffed, taking breath against the skirting-board and them cool with their coats in strips, and all she says was ‘Mrs Lirriper I am sorry as ever I touched you, for you’re a kind motherly old thing,’ and it made me think that I had often wished I had been a mother indeed and how would my heart have felt if I had been the mother of that girl! Well you know it turned out at the Police-office that she had done it before, and she had her clothes away and was sent to prison, and when she was to come out I trotted off to the gate in the evening with just a morsel of jelly in that little basket of mine to give her a mite of strength to face the world again, and there I met with a very decent mother waiting for her son through bad company and a stubborn one he was with his half boots not laced. So out came Caroline and I says Caroline come along with me and sit down under the wall where it’s retired and eat a little trifle that I have brought with me to do you good’ and she throws her arms round my neck and says sobbing 0 why were you never a mother when there are such mothers as there are!’ she says, and in half a minute more she begins to laugh and says ‘Did I really tear your cap to shreds?’ and when I told her ‘You certainly did so Caroline’ she laughed again and said while she patted my face ‘Then why do you wear such queer old caps you dear old thing? If you hadn’t worn such queer old caps I don’t think I should have done it even then.’ Fancy the girl! Nothing could get out of her what she was going to do except 0 she would do well enough, and we parted she being very thankful and kissing my hands, and I never more saw or heard of that girl, except that I shall always believe that a very genteel cap which was brought anonymous to me one Saturday night in an oilskin basket by a most impertinent young sparrow of a monkey whistling with dirty shoes on the clean steps and playing the harp on the Airy railings with a hoop-stick came from Caroline.

  What you lay yourself open to my dear in the way of being the object of uncharitable suspicions when you go into the Lodging business I have not the words to tell you, but never was I so dishonourable as to have two keys nor would I willingly think it even of Miss Wozenham lower down on the other side of the way sincerely hoping that it may not be, though doubtless at the same time money cannot come from nowhere and it is not reason to suppose that Bradshaws put it in for love be it blotty as it may. It is a hardship hurting to the feelings that Lodgers open their minds so wide to the idea that you are trying to get the better of them and shut their minds so close to the idea that they are trying to get the better of you, but as Major Jackman says to me ‘I know the ways of this circular world Mrs Lirriper, and that’s one of ’em all round it’ and many is the little ruffle in my mind that the Major has smoothed, for he is a clever man who has seen much. Dear dear, thirteen years have passed though it seems but yesterday since I was sitting with my glasses on at the open front parlour window one evening in August (the parlours being then vacant) reading yesterday’s paper my eyes for print being poor though still I am thankful to say a long sight at a distance, when I hear a gentleman come posting across the road and up the street in a dreadful rage talking to himself in a fury and d‘ing and c’ing somebody. ‘By George!’ says he out loud and clutching his walking-stick, ‘I’ll go to Mrs Lirriper’s. Which is Mrs Lirriper’s?’ Then looking round and seeing me he flourishes his hat right off his head as if I had been the queen and he says ‘Excuse the intrusion Madam, but pray Madam can you tell me at what number in this street there resides a well-known and much-respected lady by the name of Lirriper?’ A little flustered though I must say gratified I took off my glasses and curtseyed and said ‘Sir, Mrs Lirriper is your humble servant.’ ‘As-tonishing!’ says he. ‘A million pardons! Madam, may I ask you to have the kindness to direct one of your domestics to open
the door to a gentleman in search of apartments, by the name of Jackman?’ I had never heard the name but a politer gentleman I never hoped to see, for says he ‘Madam I am shocked at your opening the door yourself to no worthier a fellow than Jemmy Jackman. After you Madam. I never precede a lady.’ Then he comes into the parlours and he sniffs and he says ‘Hah! These are parlours! Not musty cupboards’ he says ’but parlours, and no smell of coal-sacks.’ Now my dear it having been remarked by some inimical to the whole neighbourhood that it always smells of coal-sacks which might prove a drawback to Lodgers if encouraged, I says to the Major gently though firmly that I think he is referring to Arundel or Surrey or Howard but not Norfolk. ‘Madam’ says he ‘I refer to Wozenham’s lower down over the way - Madam you can form no notion what Wozenham’s is - Madam it is a vast coal-sack, and Miss Wozenham has the principles and manners of a female heaver — Madam from the manner in which I have heard her mention you I know she has no appreciation of a lady, and from the manner in which she has conducted herself towards me I know she has no appreciation of a gentleman - Madam my name is Jackman - should you require any other reference than what I have already said, I name the Bank of England - perhaps you know it!’ Such was the beginning of the Major’s occupying the parlours and from that hour to this the same and a most obliging Lodger and punctual in all respects except one irregular which I need not particularly specify, but made up for by his being a protection and at all times ready to fill in the papers of the Assessed Taxes and Juries and that, and once collared a young man with the drawing-room clock under his cloak, and once on the parapets with his own hands and blankets put out the kitchen chimney and afterwards attending the summons made a most eloquent speech against the Parish before the magistrates and saved the engine,3 and ever quite the gentleman though passionate. And certainly Miss Wozenham’s detaining the trunks and umbrella was not in a liberal spirit though it may have been according to her rights in law or an act I would myself have stooped to, the Major being so much the gentleman that though he is far from tall he seems almost so when he has his shirt frill out and his frock-coat on and his hat with the curly brims, and in what service he was I cannot truly tell you my dear whether Militia or Foreign, for I never heard him even name himself as Major but always simple ‘Jemmy Jackman’ and once soon after he came when I felt it my duty to let him know that Miss Wozenham had put it about that he was no Major and I took the liberty of adding ‘which you are sir’ his words were ‘Madam at any rate I am not a Minor, and sufficient for the day is the evil thereof’4 which cannot be denied to be the sacred truth, nor yet his military ways of having his boots with only the dirt brushed off taken to him in the front parlour every morning on a clean plate and varnishing them himself with a little sponge and a saucer and a whistle in a whisper so sure as ever his breakfast is ended, and so neat his ways that it never soils his linen which is scrupulous though more in quality than quantity, neither that nor his moustachios which to the best of my belief are done at the same time and which are as black and shining as his boots, his head of hair being a lovely white.

  It was the third year nearly up of the Major’s being in the parlours that early one morning in the month of February when Parliament was coming on and you may therefore suppose a number of impostors were about ready to take hold of anything they could get, a gentleman and lady from the country came in to view the Second, and I well remember that I had been looking out of window and had watched them and the heavy sleet driving down the street together looking for bills. I did not quite take to the face of the gentleman though he was good-looking too but the lady was a very pretty young thing and delicate, and it seemed too rough for her to be out at all though she had only come from the Adelphi Hotel which would not have been much above a quarter of a mile if the weather had been less severe. Now it did so happen my dear that I had been forced to put five shillings weekly additional on the second in consequence of a loss from running away full-dressed as if going out to a dinner-party, which was very artful and had made me rather suspicious taking it along with Parliament, so when the gentleman proposed three months certain and the money in advance and leave then reserved to renew on the same terms for six months more, I says I was not quite certain but that I might have engaged myself to another party but would step down stairs and look into it if they would take a seat. They took a seat and I went down to the handle of the Major’s door that I had already began to consult finding it a great blessing, and I knew by his whistling in a whisper that he was varnishing his boots which was generally considered private, however he kindly calls out ‘If it’s you, Madam, come in,’ and I went in and told him.

  ‘Well, Madam,’ says the Major rubbing his nose - as I did fear at the moment with the black sponge but it was only his knuckle, he being always neat and dexterous with his fingers - ‘well, Madam, I suppose you would be glad of the money?’

  I was delicate of saying ‘Yes’ too out, for a little extra colour rose into the Major’s cheeks and there was irregularity which I will not particularly specify in a quarter which I will not name.

  ‘I am of the opinion, Madam,’ says the Major ‘that when money is ready for you - when it is ready for you Mrs Lirriper - you ought to take it. What is there against it, Madam, in this case upstairs?’

  ‘I really cannot say there is anything against it sir, still I thought I would consult you.’

  ‘You said a newly-married couple, I think, Madam?’ says the Major.

  I says ‘Ye-es. Evidently. And indeed the young lady mentioned to me in a casual way that she had not been married many months.’

  The Major rubbed his nose again and stirred the varnish round and round in its little saucer with his piece of sponge and took to his whistling in a whisper for a few moments. Then he says ‘You would call it a Good Let, Madam?’

  ‘Oh certainly a Good Let sir.’

  ‘Say they renew for the additional six months. Would it put you about very much Madam if — if the worst was to come to the worst?’ said the Major.

  ‘Well I hardly know,’ I says to the Major. ‘It depends upon circumstances. Would you object Sir for instance?’

  ‘I?’ says the Major. ‘Object? Jemmy Jackman? Mrs Lirriper close with the proposal.’

  So I went up-stairs and accepted, and they came in next day which was Saturday and the Major was so good as to draw up a Memorandum of an agreement in a beautiful round hand and expressions that sounded to me equally legal and military, and Mr Edson signed it on the Monday morning and the Major called upon Mr Edson on the Tuesday and Mr Edson called upon the Major on the Wednesday and the Second and the parlours were as friendly as could be wished.

  The three months paid for had run out and we had got without any fresh overtures as to payment into May my dear, when there came an obligation upon Mr Edson to go a business expedition right across the Isle of Man, which fell quite unexpected on that pretty little thing and is not a place that according to my views is particularly in the way to anywhere at any time but that may be a matter of opinion. So short a notice was it that he was to go next day, and dreadfully she cried poor pretty and I am sure I cried too when I saw her on the cold pavement in the sharp east wind - it being a very backward spring that year - taking a last leave of him with her pretty bright hair blowing this way and that and her arms clinging round his neck and him saying ‘There there there! Now let me go Peggy.’ And by that time it was plain that what the Major had been so accommodating as to say he would not object to happening in the house, would happen in it, and I told her as much,when he was gone while I comforted her with my arm up the staircase, for I says ‘You will soon have others to keep up for my pretty and you must think of that.’

  His letter never came when it ought to have come and what she went through morning after morning when the postman brought none for her the very postman himself compassionated when she ran down to the door, and yet we cannot wonder at its being calculated to blunt the feelings to have all the trouble of other people’s l
etters and none of the pleasure and doing it oftener in the mud and mizzle than not and at a rate of wages more resembling Little Britain than Great. But at last one morning when she was too poorly to come running down stairs he says to me with a pleased look in his face that made me next to love the man in his uniform coat though he was dripping wet ‘I have taken you first in the street this morning Mrs Lirriper, for here’s the one for Mrs Edson.’ I went up to her bedroom with it fast as ever I could go, and she sat up in bed when she saw it and kissed it and tore it open and then a blank stare came upon her. ‘It’s very short!’ she says lifting her large eyes to my face. ‘0 Mrs Lirriper it’s very short!’ I says ‘My dear Mrs Edson no doubt that’s because your husband hadn’t time to write more just at that time.’ ‘No doubt, no doubt,’ says she, and puts her two hands on her face and turns round in her bed.

  I shut her softly in and I crept down stairs and I tapped at the Major’s door, and when the Major having his thin slices of bacon in his own Dutch oven saw me he came out of his chair and put me down on the sofa. ‘Hush! ’ says he, ‘I see something’s the matter. Don’t speak — take time.’ I says ‘0 Major I am afraid there’s cruel work up-stairs.’ ‘Yes yes’ says he ‘I had begun to be afraid of it - take time.’ And then in opposition to his own words he rages out frightfully, and says ‘I shall never forgive myself Madam, that I, Jemmy Jackman, didn’t see it all that morning - didn’t go straight up-stairs when my boot-sponge was in my hand - didn’t force it down his throat - and choke him dead with it on the spot!’