I. A. R. Wylie

“ Amelia paid no attention to their woes, but set them to feel their way over the bare boards. From long experience they knew of the perilous possibility of encountering nails, or bits of glass, or Mr. Nobbs's discarded boots, so they went gingerly and noiselessly. 'Melia knew just where everything was to be found and what to avoid. There was Mr. Nobbs himself in one corner and Mrs. Nobbs in the other with the twins between them in a large converted soap-box. Perhaps some people may think the garret improperly overcrowded, but in Mountjoy Alley, five to a room was considered a decent average. ”

“ Nobbs's language an awful official solemnity in 'Melia's ears. Mrs. Pugmire had also been making up fires, and her round, good-natured face was black.
"Bit late, ain't yer, 'Melia?"
"Yus. Mother was took bad again." She was panting, and her thin little legs trembled under her. "Spasims," she added impressively.
Mrs. Pugmire made a face at the "solicitors".
"Well, get along in. First room on the right. I've put a duster on the table for you. You make things clean and tidy before the gents come. They'll be that angry if they find us about. ”

“ She could not think clearly, but she knew that something evil had laid its knife at the roots of the one thing that had grown straight and fine in their sunless, arid garden, their one little bit of glory and vision which they had clung to so stubbornly. ”

“ The crackling of the wood aroused the twins, who whimpered, and their whimpering aroused Mrs. Nobbs, who groaned terribly. From the opposite corner came the muffled sound of Mr. Nobbs's early morning curse.
"That you 'Melia?"
"Yus, Dad."
"Tea ready?"
"Water ain't biled yet."
"Well, 'urry up, can't yer? D'yer want a poor working man to go out into the cold without even a cup o' tea? A nice thing! Where'd you be, I'd like to know, if I was took? if that tea ain't ready when I am, my gal, somebody 'll be sorry about it——"
Mrs. Nobbs heaved herself up against the wall with another groan. ”

“ She mopped up the ink with Mrs. Pugmire's duster, thereby for ever forfeiting her right to tuppence. "Ma says I ain't no good at nothink," she added humbly.
Henry Nobbs did not offer any polite contradiction. He took his place at the now immaculate desk and began to turn back his cuffs. He seemed to have forgotten 'Melia's presence. She stood apart, the soaking duster squeezed between her hands, her eyes wide, a little breath of colour in each sunken cheek. ”

“ Nobbs became melancholic. In vain the most royal and high-sounding names were chosen for the luckless and unlovely stranger. Mr. Nobbs persisted in feeling aggrieved.
"A gal!" he ejaculated bitterly. "A bloomin' gal! No good they ain't—no good at all. One woman in the 'ouse is one too many, that's wot I say." ”

“ Nobbs's voice raised in bitter grief and anger.
"We've been driven back again. It ain't their fault, the fine lads, but there ain't enough of 'em. We shall want every man we've got. Gawd! why won't they 'ave me?"
"And 'Enry—'ave you 'eard?"
"Don't you worry, mother." He gave a short exultant laugh. "He's gone with the best, you can bet your life on that. They'll make a bloomin' orficer of 'im before you can say Jack Robinson. They'll want men like 'im. He'll do 'is bit—our 'Enry." He broke off, and 'Melia knew that he was looking at her, and she knew the look. ”

“ Ain't I goin' to get nothin'? Not that I expect it. Oh, no, not me. I know wot 'appens to them 'oo toils themselves to skin and bone for others. Left to starve in their beds—that's it—starve in their——"
"Oh, take 'er 'er tea, can't yer? Look 'ere, if you two brats don't stop that row I'll bash yer 'eads together, I will."
'Melia came back to the fire and crouched down beside the twins, who, regaled with a mug of tea and a slab of stale bread, continued to sniff, but at increasingly long intervals. Mr. Nobbs glanced at her resentfully. She was not even a pretty child. ”

“ Mr. Nobbs sprang up with a roar.
"Never you mind wot your teacher said! I won't 'ave none of it. You'll come 'ome and 'elp your mother and your poor old father. We've kept you idle long enough. You've got to earn your keep now, d'yer 'ear?"
'Melia heard. She began to dress the twins, and their unquenchable exuberance kept her from further unwelcome manifestations. Presently Mr. Nobbs went out. Nobody inquired as to his return. No one knew what he did with his day, and since he provided nothing towards the upkeep of the establishment, nobody cared. ”

“ Nobbs 'ad 'ad an 'ard life," and enthusiastically accepted her invitation to "'ave another".
"And the 'ardest blow of all 'as been 'Melia," Mrs. Nobbs would conclude tearfully. "My belief is she ain't quite sixteen ounces to the pound as they say, and that ugly! Though I says it as shouldn't, she didn't get 'er looks from me, Gawd be thanked. She ain't no good for anything is 'Melia."
'Melia grew up with the phrase ringing in her ears.
II
She woke long before the winter sun had begun to show itself wanly through the grey fog which never really lifted from the roofs of Mountjoy Alley. ”

“ Henry looked at her at last. It was such a familiar look that it did not hurt her—impatient, uneasy, resentful. She knew that people wanted to hit her when they looked like that.
"What a dirty little ragamuffin you are. Half-starved too. Why don't you wash your face?"
"I do, 'Enry. But it ain't no good. It just comes again."
"What comes again? You can't even speak English. It's disgusting. The way the lot of you have gone down hill makes me sick. What do you do with yourself all day?"
'Melia faltered, and the question baffled her. What did she do that was worth repeating to such a man? ”

“ He kissed her gingerly on the cheek. "You're a queer little freak. There—and p'raps I'll bring Alice to see you dance—yes, I will really. And throw bouquets at you. And here's sixpence. Buy yourself something to eat, you look as though you wanted——"
He broke off. The door had opened before a large and portly gentleman, and Henry busied himself among his papers. No one saw 'Melia slip out. She was so small and quiet. She forgot Mrs. Pugmire and the tuppence and the spoiled duster. ”

“ They're going over my books to-morrow—they're hard men. If I can't square things it means quod, and there's Alice—no end proud. I know what she's thinking all the time. Why don't I join up and do my bit? And I would—I'd make good—but I can't now. I shan't have the chance."
She stood very straight.
"You'll 'ave to go, 'Enry. We ain't got enuf men. They—they've got to 'ave fellows like you, Dad says. They want you bad." ”

“ Mr. Nobbs, half-dressed by now, his braces hanging, slip-slopped over to the fire and poured himself out a mug of tea with a shaking hand. He, too, was part of the greyness—grey-haired, grey stubble on leaden, sunken cheeks. Compared with him, Mrs. Nobbs, still propped up and groaning dismally, with the firelight on her baggy, weak-featured face, seemed the embodiment of life.
"Wot about me, eh? ”

“ Nobbs, whose nervous system was at its worst in the early morning, an attack of what he called the "jim-jams".
"I don't see wot you've got to look blue about," he burst out fiercely. "You ain't got to turn out in the cold to earn bread for a lot of greedy brats. ”

“ Nobbs leant against the bar of the nearest public-house and told her tale.
"And there was me, suffering somethink awful, and wot does the varmint do? Buys itself bull's-eyes and comes 'ome with a lot of bloomin' lies. But I told 'er orf, I did. She won't forget the clout I gave 'er in a 'urry. Ain't as though I weren't a good mother. Look at me, waitin' 'ere to fetch 'er when she's done gallivanting at the theyater. Ain't many as'd do it. Little good-fer-nothing!" ”

“ And 'e 'ad a bowler 'at and an overcoat like them swells 'ave, with skirts to it, an' a button 'ole—a carnation."
"Why, Ambrose, you never told me! Did you speak to 'im?"
Mr. Nobbs's eyelids dropped. He rubbed the knees of his shabby trousers with the palms of his hands.
"No, I didn't. Wot cher tike me for? 'I'm a gent and me a workin' man. A nice thing! But I watched 'im—I followed 'im for a bit. It made me come over queer to think of that fine young chap bein' my son——"
In the following silence 'Melia's voice sounded thin and and quavering. ”

“ She tried to understand, but her brain was full of the stifling steam of the laundry, the counting of shirts, and the tum-tum-tum of the orchestra. It did not seem to cope with anything else.
But she noticed things. For instance, Mrs. Nobbs's "attacks" suddenly took a turn for the better. She disappeared early in the morning and came home grimly sober. Mr. Nobbs brought home money and talked strangely of strange things. They moved into a better street, and the twins slept in a bed.
Then, one night, from the corner where she slept, 'Melia heard Mr. ”