W. Pett Ridge

“ They reached home that evening after a perfect day, the young women tired but delighted. Alfred left them at New Cross to run down to Deptford, and when he arrived home he came with the news that he had bought a piano for next to nothing, and that it would come by van that very evening, information which slightly depressed the second sister, but gave great happiness to Caroline.
'Did you do that bit of business for me, Elf?' asked William Finnis, when he had listened to the concerted account of the treasures of the Zoological Gardens. ”

“ CHAPTER X The attitude of reticence towards her neighbours which Caroline had observed at Exmouth Terrace was continued in the higher circles that Lewisham presented. The lady of the next house was one who, having in her salad days been in the chorus of a London theatre, never ceased to bewail her want of luck in finding a husband in the tea business instead of a husband in the aristocracy. ”

“ They entered the Cathedral, and there even Alfred's spirits were awed by the impressive largeness. They read the inscriptions on the pedestals of statues, spelling out with especial care the wording of one that concerned a West-countryman; they found the Wellington statue, too, and Caroline showed a knowledge of the great Duke's exploits that astonished her sisters and gratified Alfred. Caroline said that it was a fine thing to fight for your country, and she should not greatly object if Trafalgar, when he grew up, were to show some desire to become a soldier ”

“ And so do you, you young Mohawk,' he continued, slapping Alfred on the shoulder with great joviality. '’Pon me life, some men get all the luck.'
Now this was really very excellent and agreeable. Here were crimson plush easy-chairs for the ladies to sit upon, whilst respectful attendants wheeled gorgeously tyred cycles up and down in front of them, just for all the world as though they expected that the sisters might say at any moment: 'Send off three of those £30 machines to our address, please, and be quick about it' ”

“ Mr. Dowton gave up for a space his work of keeping an eye on pickpockets in the crowd, and chatted amiably with the ladies, going so far as to suggest threepenny ices, and eventually seeing them home. The next day Dowton called at Loampit Vale with a copy of a weekly paper, containing his portrait and an applauding notice of himself to present to the second sister, and the second sister declared that the portrait was not nearly good enough, a remark that gave Mr. Dowton much satisfaction.
Alfred, engaged in easy repairing work in the shop, watched the visit with some nervousness ”

“ He had known the place well in old days; most of the inhabitants had come to their present state of fine recklessness through an ancestry of wrongdoers with odd strains of mixed breeding here and there; rarely even in the lodging-houses did one find the man or woman who had broken away from immaculate families. ”