"Oh, jest a few," he said, depositing the bottles on the lower shelf of the dresser. "Nothink like "avin" a bottle or two up yer sleeve."
"Why have you got your best suit on?" She regarded with disapproval the blue suit and red necktie Bindle was wearing. Her eyes dropped to the white cuffs that only a careful manipulation of his thumbs prevented from slipping off altogether.
"Ain"t it the night of the party?" he enquired innocently.
"I told you that I won"t have you come in, you with your common ways and low talk."
"That"s all right," he replied cheerfully. "I"m a-goin" to sit in the kitchen."
"And what good will that do you?" she demanded suspiciously. "Another time, when I"m alone, you can go out fast enough. Now because I"ve got a few friends coming, nothing will move you."
"But I want to "ear the music," he protested. "P"raps I"ll get to like carols if I "ear enough of "em," he added, with the air of one who announces that some day he hopes to acquire a taste for castor-oil.
"You"re enough to try the patience of a saint," she cried, still eyeing the bottles of beer. "I suppose you"re up to some devilment. It wouldn"t be you to let me enjoy myself."
"I likes to see you enjoyin" yerself, Lizzie," he protested. ""Ow"d you like ole Ginger to run in an"----?"
"If that man enters my house I"ll insult him!" she cried, her eyes glinting angrily.
"That ain"t easy," he replied cheerfully, "unless you was to drink "is beer. That always gets "is rag out."
"I won"t have that man in my house," she stormed. "You shall not pollute my home with your foul-mouthed, public-house companions. I----"
"Ole Ging is all right," Bindle a.s.sured her, as he proceeded to fetch four more bottles from the scullery. "All you got to do is to give "im some beer, play "All is Forgiven Wot "Appened on Peace Night," an" let "im stamp "is feet to the chorus, an" "e"s one of the cheerfullest coves wot you"ll find."
"Well, you bring him here and see what I"ll do," she announced darkly.
"That"s all right, Mrs. B., don"t you worry. I jest asked "Uggles to run round an" keep me company, and Wilkie may drop in if "e ain"t too busy coughin"; but they shan"t get mixed up with the canaries--they won"t want to after wot I"m goin" to tell "em, an" we"ll all be as quiet as mice."
"If you bring any of your friends into the parlour, Bindle," she cried, "I"ll turn the gas out."
"Naughty!" he admonished, wagging at her a playful forefinger. "I ain"t a-goin" to allow----"
"Stop it!" and with that she bounced out of the kitchen and dashed upstairs to the bedroom, banging the door behind her.
"Ain"t women funny," he grumbled, as he fetched the remaining four bottles of beer from the scullery, and placed them upon the shelf of the dresser. "Nice ole row there"d "ave been if I"d said anythink about turnin" out the gas. That"s why ole "Earty"s so keen on them choir practices. I bet they got a penny-in-the-slot meter, an" everybody takes bloomin" good care to leave all their coppers at "ome."
Overhead, Mrs. Bindle could be heard giving expression to her feelings in the opening and shutting of drawers.
"Well, well!" he sighed philosophically, "I suppose you can"t "ave everythink, as the cove said when "e found the lodger "ad gone orf with "is trousers on Bank "Oliday," and he proceeded to gather together two cracked tumblers, which had been censored by Mrs. Bindle as unfit for her guests, a large white mug, with a pink band and the remains of a view of Margate, and a pint jug with a pink b.u.t.terfly on the spout.
"We"re a-goin" to enjoy ourselves, any-old-"ow," he murmured as, picking up a meat-dish from the dresser, he slipped into the parlour, returning a moment later with it piled with rock-cakes, sandwiches and sausage-rolls. These he hid on the bottom shelf of the dresser, placing a pair of boots in front of them.
"Jest in time," he muttered, as Mrs. Bindle was heard descending the stairs. "It"s--"Ullo!" he broke off, ""ere"s the first appet.i.te," as a knock was heard at the front door.
For the next ten minutes, Mrs. Bindle was busy conducting her guests upstairs to "take off their things." Their escorts waited in the pa.s.sage, clearing their throats, or stroking their chins. Convention demanded that they should wait to make a formal entry into the parlour with their wives.
With his ear pressed against the kitchen door, Bindle listened with interest, endeavouring to identify from their voices the arrivals as they pa.s.sed.
By ten minutes past seven, the sounds in the pa.s.sage had ceased--the guests had all come. In Mrs. Bindle"s circle it was customary to take literally the time mentioned in the invitation, and to apologise for even a few minutes" lateness.
In order that the Montagues should not become confused with the Capulets, Bindle had taken the precaution of asking his own friends to come to the back door. He had added that the beer would be in the kitchen.
Mrs. Bindle had always been immovable in her determination that Bindle"s "low public-house companions" should not have an opportunity of "insulting" her friends from the Alton Road Chapel.
With Mrs. Bindle the first quarter-of-an-hour of her rare social gatherings was always a period of anguish and uncertainty. Although everybody knew everybody else, all were constrained and ill-at-ease.
Miss Lamb kept twirling her rolled-gold bracelet round her lace-mittened wrist, smiling vacantly the while. Miss Death seemed unable to keep her hard grey eyes, set far too closely together, from the refreshment sideboard, whilst Mrs. d.y.k.es, a tiny woman in a fawn skirt and a coral-pink blouse, was continually feeling the back of her head, as if antic.i.p.ating some catastrophe to her hair.
Mrs. Hearty, who began in a bright blue satin blouse, and ended in canary-coloured stockings thrust into cloth shoes with paste buckles, beat her breast and struggled for breath. Mr. Hearty was negative, conversationally he was a bankrupt, whilst Mrs. St.i.tchley was garrulous and with a purpose. She was bent upon talking down the consciousness that she had not been invited.
Her excuse for coming, at least the excuse she made to herself, was that of chaperoning her daughter, a near-sighted, shapeless girl, with no chest and a muddy complexion, who never had and never would require such an attention.
The others were just neuter, except Mr. Thimbell, whose acute nervousness and length of limb rendered him a nuisance.
Mrs. Bindle was conscious that she was looking her best in a dark blue alpaca dress, with a cream-coloured lace yoke, which modesty had prompted her to have lined with the material of the dress. To her, the display of any portion of her person above the instep, or below the feminine equivalent of the "Adam"s apple," was a tribute to the Mammon of Unrighteousness, and her dressmaker was instructed accordingly.
She moved about the room, trying to make everyone feel at home, and succeeding only in emphasising the fact that they were all out.
Everybody was anxious to get down to the serious business of the evening; still the social amenities had to be observed. There must be a preliminary period devoted to conversation.
After a quarter-of-an-hour"s endeavour to exchange the ideas which none of them possessed, Mrs. Bindle moved over to Mr. Hearty and whispered something, at the same time glancing across at the harmonium. There was an immediate look of interest and expectancy on faces which, a moment before, had been blank and apathetic.
Mr. Goslett, a little man with high cheekbones and a criminal taste in neckwear, cleared his throat; Mr. Hearty surrept.i.tiously slipped into his mouth an acid drop, which he had just taken from his waistcoat pocket; Mr. d.y.k.es, a long, thin man, who in his youth had been known to his contemporaries as "Razor," drew his handkerchief with a flourish, and tested Mrs. Bindle"s walls as if he were a priest before Jericho.
Some difficulty arose as to who should play Mr. Hearty"s beloved instrument. Mrs. St.i.tchley made it clear that she expected her daughter, Mabel, to be asked. Mrs. Bindle, however, decided that Mrs. Snarch, a colourless woman who sang contralto (her own contralto) and sniffed when she was not singing contralto, should preside; her influence with her fellow-members of the choir was likely to be greater. Thus in the first ten minutes Mrs. Bindle scored two implacable enemies and one dubious friend.
Mrs. Snarch took her seat at the harmonium, fidgetted about with her skirts and blinked near-sightedly at the book of carols, which seemed disinclined to remain open. The others grouped themselves about her.
There was a medley of strange sounds, as each member of the party took the necessary steps to ensure purity of vocal tone. Added to this, Mr.
d.y.k.es pulled his collar away from his throat and stretched his neck upwards, as if to clear a pa.s.sage for the sound he intended to send forth. Mr. Goslett pushed his sandy moustache up from his full lips with the back of his right forefinger, whilst Miss St.i.tchley moistened and remoistened her thin, colourless lips.
Then they joined together in song.
After a preliminary carol, in which no one seemed to take any particular interest, they got off well together with "Good King Wenceslas," a prime favourite at the Alton Road Chapel.
This evening it proved an enormous success.
Miss St.i.tchley"s shrillness clashed with Mrs. Bindle"s sharpness more than in the preceding carol. Mr. Hearty shut his eyes more tightly and was woollier, Mr. d.y.k.es got more breath behind his boom, and Mrs. d.y.k.es made more mistakes in her "harmony." Mr. Goslett raised his head higher, looking more than ever like a chicken drinking, whilst Miss Death"s thin, upper notes seemed to pierce even Mr. d.y.k.es"s boom, just as they put Miss Lamb, always uncertain as to pitch, even further off her stroke.
Still, everyone enjoyed it immensely. Even Mrs. St.i.tchley, who confessed that she was "no "and at singin"," croaked a few husky notes, as she sat acutely upright, due to a six-and-elevenpenny pair of stays she had bought that afternoon, nodding her head and beating time.
Mrs. St.i.tchley never lost an opportunity of making clear her position in regard to music.
"I"m musical, my dear," she would say. "It"s in the fambly; but I don"t sing, I "as spasms, you know." She volunteered this information much as a man might seek to excuse his inability to play the French horn by explaining that he is addicted to ba.s.s viol.
"Now that"s what I call a carol," said Mrs. St.i.tchley, endeavouring to prevent the upper portion of her stay-busk from burying itself in her flesh. Then, with sudden inspiration, she cried, "Encore! Encore!" and made a motion to clap her hands; but the stay-busk took the opportunity of getting in a vicious dig. With a little yelp of pain, Mrs.
St.i.tchley"s hands flew to her rescue.