He said, quietly, "I didn"t hear you knock, Mrs. Zapp."
"Ah _didn"t_ knock, and Ah want you should--"
"Then please do knock, unless you want me to give notice."
He was quivering. His voice was shrill.
From the hall below Theresa called up, "Ma, come down here. _Ma!_"
But Mrs. Zapp was too well started. "If you think Ah"m going to stand for a lazy sneaking little drunkard keeping the whole street awake, and here it is prett" nearly midnight--"
Just then Mr. William Wrenn saw and heard the most astounding thing of his life, and became an etemal slave to Tom Poppins.
Tom"s broad face became hard, his voice businesslike. He shouted at Mrs. Zapp:
"Beat it or I"ll run you in. Trouble with you is, you old hag, you don"t appreciate a nice quiet little chap like Wrenn, and you try to bully him--and him here for years. Get out or I"ll put you out. I"m no lamb, and I won"t stand for any of your monkey-shines. Get out. This ain"t your room; he"s rented it--he"s paid the rent--it"s his room. Get out!"
Kindly Tom Poppins worked in a cigar-store and was accustomed to talk back to drunken men six feet tall. His voice was tremendous, and he was fatly immovable; he didn"t a bit mind the fact that Mrs. Zapp was still "glaring speechless."
But behold an ally to the forlorn lady. When Theresa, in the hall below, heard Tom, she knew that Mr. Wrenn would room here no more. She galloped up-stairs and screeched over her mother"s shoulder:
"You will pick on a lady, will you, you drunken sc.u.m--you--you cads--I"ll have you arrested so quick you--"
"Look here, lady," said Tom, gently. "I"m a plain-clothes man, a detective." His large voice purred like a tiger-tabby"s. "I don"t want to run you in, but I will if you don"t get out of here and shut that door. Or you might go down and call the cop on this block. He"ll run you in--for breaking Code 2762 of the Penal Law! Trespa.s.s and flotsam--that"s what it is!"
Uneasy, frightened, then horrified, Mrs. Zapp swung bulkily about and slammed the door.
Sick, guilty, banished from home though he felt, Mr. Wrenn"s voice quavered, with an attempt at dignity:
"I"m awful sorry she b.u.t.ted in while you fellows was here.
I don"t know how to apologize"
"Forget it, old man," rolled out Tom"s ba.s.s. "Come on, let"s go up to Mrs. Arty"s."
"But, gee! it"s nearly a quarter to eleven."
"That"s all right. We can get up there by a little after, and Mrs. Arty stays up playing cards till after twelve."
"Golly!" Mr. Wrenn agitatedly e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed under his breath, as they noisily entered Mrs. Arty"s--though not noisily on his part.
The parlor door was open. Mrs. Arty"s broad back was toward them, and she was announcing to James T. Duncan and Miss Proudfoot, with whom she was playing three-handed Five Hundred, "Well, I"ll just bid seven on hearts if you"re going to get so set up." She glanced back, nodded, said, "Come in, children,"
picked up the "widow," and discarded with quick twitches of the cards. The frightened Mr. Wrenn, feeling like a shipwrecked land-lubber, compared this gaming smoking woman unfavorably with the intense respectability of his dear lost patron, Mrs. Zapp.
He sat uneasy till the hand of cards was finished, feeling as though they were only tolerating him. And Nelly Croubel was nowhere in sight.
Suddenly said Mrs. Arty, "And now you would like to look at that room, Mr. Wrenn, unless I"m wrong."
"Why--uh--yes, I guess I would like to."
"Come with me, child," she said, in pretended severity. "Tom, you take my hand in the game, and don"t let me hear you"ve been bidding ten on no suit without the joker." She led Mr. Wrenn to the settee hat-rack in the hall. "The third-floor-back will be vacant in two weeks, Mr. Wrenn. We can go up and look at it now if you"d like to. The man who has it now works nights--he"s some kind of a head waiter at Rector"s, or something like that, and he"s out till three or four. Come."
When he saw that third-floor-back, the room that the smart people at Mrs. Arty"s were really willing to let him have, he felt like a man just engaged. It was all in soft green--gra.s.s-green matting, pale-green walls, chairs of white wicker with green cushions; the bed, a couch with a denim cover and four sofa pillows. It gave him the impression of being a guest on Fifth Avenue.
"It"s kind of a plain room," Mrs. Arty said, doubtfully. "The furniture is kind of plain. But my head-waiter man--it was furnished for a friend of his--he says he likes it better than any other room in the house. It _is_ comfortable, and you get lots of sunlight and--"
"I"ll take--How much is it, please, with board?"
She spoke with a take-it-or-leave-it defiance. "Eleven-fifty a week."
It was a terrible extravagance; much like marrying a sick woman on a salary of ten a week, he reflected; nine-teen minus eleven-fifty left him only seven-fifty for clothes and savings and things and--but--" I"ll take it," he said, hastily. He was frightened at himself, but glad, very glad. He was to live in this heaven; he was going to be away from that Zapp woman; and Nelly Croubel--Was she engaged to some man? he wondered.
Mrs. Arty was saying: "First, I want to ask you some questions, though. Please sit down." As she creaked into one of the wicker chairs she suddenly changed from the cigarette-rolling chaffing card-player to a woman dignified, reserved, commanding. "Mr.
Wrenn, you see, Miss Proudfoot and Miss Croubel are on this floor. Miss Proudfoot can take care of herself, all right, but Nelly is such a trusting little thing--She"s like my daughter. She"s the only one I"ve ever given a reduced rate to--and I swore I never would to anybody!... Do you--uh--drink--drink much, I mean?"
Nelly on this floor! Near him! Now! He had to have this room.
He forced himself to speak directly.
"I know how you mean, Mrs. Ferrard. No, I don"t drink much of any--hardly at all; just a gla.s.s of beer now and then; sometimes I don"t even touch that a week at a time. And I don"t gamble and--and I do try to keep--er--straight--and all that sort of thing."
"That"s good."
"I work for the Souvenir and Art Novelty Company on Twenty-eighth Street. If you want to call them up I guess the manager"ll give me a pretty good recommend."
"I don"t believe I"ll need it, Mr. Wrenn. It"s my business to find out what sort of animiles men are by just talking to them."
She rose, smiled, plumped out her hand. "You _will_ be nice to Nelly, _won"t_ you! I"m going to fire that Teddem out--don"t tell him, but I am--because he gets too fresh with her."
"Yes!"
She suddenly broke into laughter, and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed: "_Say_, that was hard work! Don"t you _hate_ to have to be serious? Let"s trot down, and I"ll make Tom or Duncan rush us a growler of beer to welcome you to our midst.... I"ll bet your socks aren"t darned properly. I"m going to sneak in and take a look at them, once I get you caged up here.... But I won"t read your love-letters!
Now let"s go down by the fire, where it"s comfy."
CHAPTER XV
HE STUDIES FIVE HUNDRED, SAVOUIR FAIRE, AND LOTSA-SNAP OFFICE MOTTOES
On a couch of glossy red leather with glossy black b.u.t.tons and stiff fringes also of glossy red leather, Mr. William Wrenn sat upright and was very confiding to Miss Nelly Croubel, who was curled among the satin pillows with her skirts drawn carefully about her ankles. He had been at Mrs. Arty"s for two weeks now.
He wore a new light-blue tie, and his trousers were pressed like sheet steel.
"Yes, I suppose you"re engaged to some one, Miss Nelly, and you"ll go off and leave us--go off to that blamed Upton"s Grove or some place."