I seized the b.u.t.terfly list off the table. "I say--what about an ice, Hennie? What about tangerine and ginger? No, something cooler. What about a fresh pineapple cream?"
Hennie strongly approved. The waitress had her eye on us. The order was taken when she looked up from her crumbs.
"Did you say tangerine and ginger? I like ginger. You can bring me one."
And then quickly, "I wish that orchestra wouldn"t play things from the year One. We were dancing to that all last Christmas. It"s too sickening!"
But it was a charming air. Now that I noticed it, it warmed me.
"I think this is rather a nice place, don"t you, Hennie?" I said.
Hennie said: "Ripping!" He meant to say it very low, but it came out very high in a kind of squeak.
Nice? This place? Nice? For the first time she stared about her, trying to see what there was... She blinked; her lovely eyes wondered. A very good-looking elderly man stared back at her through a monocle on a black ribbon. But him she simply couldn"t see. There was a hole in the air where he was. She looked through and through him.
Finally the little flat spoons lay still on the gla.s.s plates. Hennie looked rather exhausted, but she pulled on her white gloves again. She had some trouble with her diamond wrist-watch; it got in her way. She tugged at it--tried to break the stupid little thing--it wouldn"t break.
Finally, she had to drag her glove over. I saw, after that, she couldn"t stand this place a moment longer, and, indeed, she jumped up and turned away while I went through the vulgar act of paying for the tea.
And then we were outside again. It had grown dusky. The sky was sprinkled with small stars; the big lamps glowed. While we waited for the car to come up she stood on the step, just as before, twiddling her foot, looking down.
Hennie bounded forward to open the door and she got in and sank back with--oh--such a sigh!
"Tell him," she gasped, "to drive as fast as he can."
Hennie grinned at his friend the chauffeur. "Allie veet!" said he. Then he composed himself and sat on the small seat facing us.
The gold powder-box came out again. Again the poor little puff was shaken; again there was that swift, deadly-secret glance between her and the mirror.
We tore through the black-and-gold town like a pair of scissors tearing through brocade. Hennie had great difficulty not to look as though he were hanging on to something.
And when we reached the Casino, of course Mrs. Radd.i.c.k wasn"t there.
There wasn"t a sign of her on the steps--not a sign.
"Will you stay in the car while I go and look?"
But no--she wouldn"t do that. Good heavens, no! Hennie could stay. She couldn"t bear sitting in a car. She"d wait on the steps.
"But I scarcely like to leave you," I murmured. "I"d very much rather not leave you here."
At that she threw back her coat; she turned and faced me; her lips parted. "Good heavens--why! I--I don"t mind it a bit. I--I like waiting." And suddenly her cheeks crimsoned, her eyes grew dark--for a moment I thought she was going to cry. "L--let me, please," she stammered, in a warm, eager voice. "I like it. I love waiting!
Really--really I do! I"m always waiting--in all kinds of places... "
Her dark coat fell open, and her white throat--all her soft young body in the blue dress--was like a flower that is just emerging from its dark bud.
6. LIFE OF MA PARKER.
When the literary gentleman, whose flat old Ma Parker cleaned every Tuesday, opened the door to her that morning, he asked after her grandson. Ma Parker stood on the doormat inside the dark little hall, and she stretched out her hand to help her gentleman shut the door before she replied. "We buried "im yesterday, sir," she said quietly.
"Oh, dear me! I"m sorry to hear that," said the literary gentleman in a shocked tone. He was in the middle of his breakfast. He wore a very shabby dressing-gown and carried a crumpled newspaper in one hand.
But he felt awkward. He could hardly go back to the warm sitting-room without saying something--something more. Then because these people set such store by funerals he said kindly, "I hope the funeral went off all right."
"Beg parding, sir?" said old Ma Parker huskily.
Poor old bird! She did look dashed. "I hope the funeral was a--a--success," said he. Ma Parker gave no answer. She bent her head and hobbled off to the kitchen, clasping the old fish bag that held her cleaning things and an ap.r.o.n and a pair of felt shoes. The literary gentleman raised his eyebrows and went back to his breakfast.
"Overcome, I suppose," he said aloud, helping himself to the marmalade.
Ma Parker drew the two jetty spears out of her toque and hung it behind the door. She unhooked her worn jacket and hung that up too. Then she tied her ap.r.o.n and sat down to take off her boots. To take off her boots or to put them on was an agony to her, but it had been an agony for years. In fact, she was so accustomed to the pain that her face was drawn and screwed up ready for the twinge before she"d so much as untied the laces. That over, she sat back with a sigh and softly rubbed her knees...
"Gran! Gran!" Her little grandson stood on her lap in his b.u.t.ton boots.
He"d just come in from playing in the street.
"Look what a state you"ve made your gran"s skirt into--you wicked boy!"
But he put his arms round her neck and rubbed his cheek against hers.
"Gran, gi" us a penny!" he coaxed.
"Be off with you; Gran ain"t got no pennies."
"Yes, you "ave."
"No, I ain"t."
"Yes, you "ave. Gi" us one!"
Already she was feeling for the old, squashed, black leather purse.
"Well, what"ll you give your gran?"
He gave a shy little laugh and pressed closer. She felt his eyelid quivering against her cheek. "I ain"t got nothing," he murmured...
The old woman sprang up, seized the iron kettle off the gas stove and took it over to the sink. The noise of the water drumming in the kettle deadened her pain, it seemed. She filled the pail, too, and the washing-up bowl.
It would take a whole book to describe the state of that kitchen. During the week the literary gentleman "did" for himself. That is to say, he emptied the tea leaves now and again into a jam jar set aside for that purpose, and if he ran out of clean forks he wiped over one or two on the roller towel. Otherwise, as he explained to his friends, his "system" was quite simple, and he couldn"t understand why people made all this fuss about housekeeping.
"You simply dirty everything you"ve got, get a hag in once a week to clean up, and the thing"s done."
The result looked like a gigantic dustbin. Even the floor was littered with toast crusts, envelopes, cigarette ends. But Ma Parker bore him no grudge. She pitied the poor young gentleman for having no one to look after him. Out of the smudgy little window you could see an immense expanse of sad-looking sky, and whenever there were clouds they looked very worn, old clouds, frayed at the edges, with holes in them, or dark stains like tea.
While the water was heating, Ma Parker began sweeping the floor. "Yes,"
she thought, as the broom knocked, "what with one thing and another I"ve had my share. I"ve had a hard life."
Even the neighbours said that of her. Many a time, hobbling home with her fish bag she heard them, waiting at the corner, or leaning over the area railings, say among themselves, "She"s had a hard life, has Ma Parker." And it was so true she wasn"t in the least proud of it. It was just as if you were to say she lived in the bas.e.m.e.nt-back at Number 27.
A hard life!...
At sixteen she"d left Stratford and come up to London as kitching-maid.