This seemed to me rather unjust. I had not taken the hairpins for my own pleasure. The fact is that the waste-pipe from the kitchen sink frequently gets blocked, and a hairpin will often do it when nothing else will. I replied coldly, but without temper, that in future I would have hairpins of my own.
She said: "What nonsense!"
At this I rose, and went up-stairs to bed.
I think that most people who know me know that I am a man of my word.
On the following morning, before breakfast, I went into the High Street to buy a pennyworth of hairpins. The short cut from our road into the High Street is down Bloodstone Terrace.
It was in Bloodstone Terrace that I witnessed a sight which pained and surprised me very much. It disgusted me. It was a disgrace to the district, and amounted to a public scandal. St. Augustine"s--which is the third house in the terrace--had taken in washing, and not only had taken in washing, but were using their front garden as a drying-ground!
An offensive thing of that kind makes my blood boil.
"Eliza," I said, as I brushed my hat preparatory to leaving for the city, "I intend to write to Mr. Hamilton to-day."
"Have you got the money, then?" Eliza asked, eagerly.
"If you refer to last quarter"s rent, I do not mean to forward it immediately. A certain amount of credit is usual between landlord and tenant. An established firm of agents like Hamilton & Bland must know that."
"Yesterday was the third time they"ve written for the money, anyhow, and you can say what you like. What are you writing for, then?"
"I have a complaint to make."
"Well, I wouldn"t make any complaints until I"d paid last quarter, if I were you. They"ll only turn you out."
"I think not. I make the complaint in their interest. When a tenant in Bloodstone Terrace is acting in a way calculated to bring the whole neighbourhood into disrepute, and depreciate the value of house property, the agents would probably be glad to hear of it."
"Well, you"re missing your train. You run off, and don"t write any letters until to-night. Then you can talk about it, if you like."
In the evening, at supper, Eliza said she had been down Bloodstone Terrace, and could not see what I was making all the fuss about.
"It is simply this," I said. "St. Augustine"s is converted into a laundry, and the front garden used as a drying-ground in a way that, to my mind, is not decent."
"Yes," said Eliza, "that"s Mrs. Pedder. The poor woman has to do something for her living. She"s just started, and only got one job at present. It would be cruel----"
"Not at all. Let her wash, if she must wash, but let her wash somewhere else. I cannot have these offensive rags flapping in my face when I walk down the street."
"They"re not offensive rags. I"m most particular about your things."
"What do you mean?"
"It"s your things that she washes. I thought I"d give her a start."
I dashed off half a gla.s.s of beer, put the gla.s.s down with a bang, and flung myself back in the chair without a word.
"Don"t behave in that silly way," said Eliza. "She"s a halfpenny cheaper on the shirt than the last woman."
"You need not mention that," I replied. "In any case I shall not complain now. I must bear the burden of any mistakes that you make. I am well aware of it."
"I"ll tell her to hang them out at the back in future."
"She can hang them where she pleases. I suppose I can bear it. It"s only one more trial to bear. One thing goes after another."
"On the contrary," said Eliza, "she"s never lost as much as a collar.
There"s a s.m.u.t on your nose."
"It can stop there," I said, moodily, and went out into the garden.
THE "CHRISTIAN MARTYR"
The "Christian Martyr" was what is called an engraving, and a very tasteful thing, too, besides being the largest picture we had. It represented a young woman, drowned, floating down a river by night, with her hands tied, and a very pleasing expression on her face. With the frame (maple, and a gilt border inside) it came to three-and-six. I bought it in the Edgware Road on my own responsibility, and carried it home. I thought Eliza would like it, and she did.
"Poor thing!" she said. "You can see she must have been a lady, too.
But frightfully dusty!"
"You can"t get everything for three-and-six. If you"d been under the counter in a dirty little----"
"Well, all right! I wasn"t complaining; but I like things clean." And she took the "Christian Martyr" into the kitchen.
"Where did you mean to put it?" asked Eliza.
"The only good place would be between "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
and "The Stag at Bay.""
"What! In the dining-room?"
"Certainly."
"Well, I shouldn"t," said Eliza. "It"s a sacred subject, and we use the drawing-room on Sundays. That"s the place."
"I think I can trust my own taste," I said. I got a bra.s.s-headed nail and a hammer, and began. Eliza said afterward that she had known the chair would break before ever I stood on it.
"Then you might have mentioned it," I said, coldly. "However, you shall learn that when I have made up my mind to do a thing, I do it." I rang the bell, and told the girl to fetch the steps.
I hung the "Christian Martyr," and was very pleased with the effect.
The whole room looked brighter and more cheerful. I asked Eliza what she thought, and she answered, as I expected, that the picture ought to have been in the drawing-room.
"Eliza," I said, "there is one little fault which you should try to correct. It is pigheadedness."
At breakfast next morning the picture was all crooked. I put it straight. Then the girl brought in the bacon, rubbed against the picture, and put it crooked again. I put it straight again, and sat down. The girl, in pa.s.sing out, put it crooked once more.