W. Pett Ridge

“ Rollinson, much astonished at this commendation of her presumed opinions, could find no words either to protest or to agree. She smoothed her crimped hair and bowed.
“But perhaps,” he went on in the same amazing tones of deference, “perhaps you won’t mind if I point out that we’re living now in a very fair state of comfort. We have roast meat every other day; if you feel inclined to go now and again to see Mr. Wigan at the St. James’s, why, you’ve only got to say so. ”

“ Rollinson,” he remarked, “that making money as I do now, and not doing much work for it, we ought to go on a steppin’ up the ladder. Allow me to remind you that sometimes I don’t retain all the cash I receive. Sounds peculiar, but it’s a fact. I find the money that takes the most trouble to get is the money that stays with me longest. Putting that all aside, your view, womanlike, is that we’ve only got one life to live in this world, whatever ’appens to us in the next, and that we’re entitled to make the most of it. ”

“ His nearest guests applauded the wit and readiness of the retort. Other tables cleared; folk hurried off to theatres. The head waiter ordered the moustached youth to turn off some of the lights.
“Now, gentlemen!” Mr. Amherst, leaning elbows on the table as coffee and liqueurs were served, cleared his throat, and sent a commanding glance up and down. “My dear”—to his daughter, who was looking at the waiter—“have I your attention?”
“Not yet, father.”
“The presence of a lady,” he said to the others, “need not interfere with the flow of conversation. ”

“ Mary and Emma urged that the master ought to go out and see what was happening. Looking through the open window the group could see that every man, every lad, every woman carried articles capable of producing clamour: some bore dustpans, some toy drums, some fire-irons. Mr. Gleeson felt able to give an explanation to the affrighted woman. It had, he believed, to do with bees; not quite certain about details, he felt sure it concerned bees—swarming or something of the kind. ”

“ A message was sent to the forge, and Sprules, the blacksmith, strolled out, drinking tea from a saucer. A tall girl stepped from the porch of the inn and whistled several times, called the word “Fuzzy!” in varying tones of insistence and appeal. Banks, the young grocer and draper, peered through his window over columns of flannel, and then came to the doorway, where, acknowledging her salutation, he bowed and blushed.
“Morning, everybody,” she said. “Any news? Has any one—”
“He’s been seen again, miss,” remarked Sprules, setting down his saucer on a windowsill, and advancing with respect. ”

“ Ashton was again invited, in plain language, to preserve silence by putting his head in a bag. The lights went out in the restaurant opposite; on the first floor a match was struck and applied to the gas globes; the music of a pianoforte was heard.
“It’s a shame,” declared Hards, throwing out his arms emphatically, “a right-down shame for a nice-looking young woman of her sort to be left alone and neglected. Here she is, able to cook, able to play, very good to look at, and she’s no business to be left by herself.” ”

“ Prince Gortschakoff might have counted himself clever, and was, no doubt, uncommonly wily, but we, too, had men just as ingenious, and this Gortschy had discovered, and others would discover to their cost. Mr. Cruttwell began to use oratorical gesture, and in one fine sweep of the arm sent the lad’s bowler hat into the roadway, restoring it with an apology that made the owner feel on a manly level with the best. ”

“ At home we reckon everybody to be equal, with a few exceptions, but here it was evident that to be called Lady Mirrible counted for something, and we naturally fell in with the local view. When you are in Rome you should do as the Romans do; the remark applies equally well to Florence. The young man gave way to us at the desk of the concierge, and Carolyn Stokes offered him a large smile. ”

“ But bless my soul,” he went on after a pause, “what a refining influence a cigar has.”
“If it’s a good one,” suggested a boy porter.
“They’re all good,” declared the new man with enthusiasm. “They’re like the ladies in that respect. Some are better’n others, but they’re all good.”
“Not a married man, then?” asked a foreman.
“I’m a bloomin’ bachelor,” said the new chum. “And what a thing it is on your Sunday off, when you’re waiting at the end of her road, to light up a cigar with a fine aroma to it. ”

“ Where are we deficient? Where are we—”
He was so much annoyed at their impatience in anticipating him by giving the answer, that he found himself obliged to apply a match to his cigar, which was still alight.
“Very well, then,” reluctantly. “Discovering this, I look around and I endeavour to find out the best man available.”
“Mr. Pangbourne,” said Burnham, taking heart, “would no more think—”
Mr. Amherst snapped finger and thumb.
“That for Master Willie Pangbourne,” he shouted. “No, no,” irritably, to the moustached waiter, “I didn’t call you. Go away and catch flies. ”

“ There seemed a desire on the part of the others that night to make Porter Jones work as hard as it is possible for a man to work. The heaviest hampers were confided to his care; the slimiest cases of fish were placed upon his shoulder; he it was who was told off to see to some consignments of rather advanced venison. The parcel of valuable cigars remained in the Number Five bin to be transferred to another Company by the first delivery in the morning, and it was observed that whenever Porter Jones came into the office he glanced in that direction. ”

“ Gleeson, crossing over, added himself to the audience.
“Well spoke,” sang the crowd, as the large man appeared to finish. “Very well putt!”
“There’s my shop ’cross there,” shouted the orator, pointing to windows that had “Crutchley, Butcher,” in marble letters overhead. “If any one thinks I’ve broke the law, that’s where they can serve a summons.”
The crowd looked around at the village constable. The constable frowned with the air of a man who had not entirely succeeded in making up his mind.
“We’ve got our rights,” the butcher went on, “and I defy any one to say the contrairy. ”

“ Marchant, lowering her voice, made a proposition which instantly met with a chorus of approval. Young Banks had taken little or no share in the whole business; he was evidently entitled to no share in the profits. Young Banks, a strict Wesleyan, had, in the hearing of one, characterised the affair as shady, and he could scarcely object to being left out. It was agreed that nothing should be said to young Banks for the present, and the meeting broke up with smiles, expressions of mutual regard, warning fingers that urged secrecy. ”

“ Cruttwell returned, in a state of some disturbance because of news he had received concerning the prospects of one of the two opposition candidates. Mr. Cruttwell distributed blame on the others by praising young Stansfield.
“This lad is going to get on in the world!” he asserted emphatically. “I flatter myself I’m a judge of character, and I don’t have to look twice at anybody. Simply disgraceful the way you youngsters loaf about and take no interest in anything but how to avoid work. Now then, set to, all of you, and follow his example. No wonder trade’s so bad. ”

“ Old Rollinson fell ill, in consequence of a chill sustained on the steamboat returning from Greenwich after his new doctor had ordered him a sea voyage, and the remittances stopped. A new and promising-looking pigeon flew into the district of the Circus; Wilner and his colleagues dropped the acquaintance of Ernest, who could find no better companion than a wise young housemaid at Jermyn Street. The girl gave him good advice and went with him to Bloomsbury Square, waiting at the railings whilst he entered to see his father, to make frank avowals, and to impersonate the prodigal son. ”

“ To write, as George Rollinson had done, that there were two kinds of money, one dry and the other slippery, one easy to retain and the other impossible to keep, was to make an assertion that, in the light of facts, could not possibly be supported.
“So get that nonsensical idea out of your head, my lad,” advised his teacher earnestly, “as soon as you possibly can. You have a good deal to learn yet, remember.”
On most subjects George accepted the instructions of the representatives of the State, bringing home to Southampton Row items of geographical information and snips of historical news ”

“ Chasemore declared that to go home without seeing a gondola would give him a pain compared with which rheumatism might be considered a sensation of acute delight. There is no use denying the fact that we two women missed Mr. Chasemore a good deal. Confusion took place on the journey, for which I blamed Carolyn Stokes, and she blamed me. When with the assistance of luck we did reach the Belvedere our tempers were not improved by the fact that a young man and an elderly lady occupied, for the moment, the attention of the hotel people. ”

“ The arrangement made by his mother was that he should reach Peckham by seven o’clock, and he felt anxious to do this, for Aunt Mabel was a cheery, irresponsible person who, on her rare visits to the country, always brought a budget of amusing songs and some excellent riddles; there seemed good reason to hope that life at Peckham would be free from the close and rigid supervision exercised at home. ”

“ What I want to say is that Pangbourne isn’t everybody. I can bring influence to bear on his directors. I’ve been accustomed to opposition all my life, and I’m not afraid of it. The only question is,”—he took a pear from the glass dish and shook it threateningly—“how to raise the money.”
The guests glanced at each other and became intent upon cigars. One or two wetted fingers and adjusted an unbroken leaf, thus escaping the inquiring look sent by Mr. Amherst.
“Tell you what,” he cried, “I’ll put down a trifle to make a start.” He called to the waiter and said in a loud, distinct voice, “Onker.” ”

“ If any other plan was adopted we should never get through the work at our office, and there would be complaints to answer, and the superintendent might send some one along to kick up a row. As Miss Maitland says, when all the customers are made on one pattern everything will be much easier to manage; meanwhile we can’t do better than to do the best we can, and to recognise that some are in a hurry, some are just the reverse.
“Above all,” mentioned Miss Maitland, when I first came here, “no carrying on across the counter with young gentlemen.” ”

“ Rollinson, with the improvement in income, and aided by a dressmaker of Theobald’s Road, cultivated a definite note in apparel, and her favourite costume was one of a tartan pattern, full in the flounces and so tightly stayed at the waist that the poor lady’s complexion was sometimes scarlet, sometimes purple. At the start, she had, for motives of economy, herself made the child’s clothes, but the boy reported to his father that these, by reason of their amplitude—
“You must allow for growing,” urged his mother. ”

“ Rollinson would not mind if, instead, he sailed for Canada.
“It’s all for the best!” said Mrs. Rollinson. After going to chapel twice on the intervening Sunday, she was regarding the possibility of the engagement of her son with greater calm. “George will have to work harder, and I’m good for several years yet. We shall rub along all right. He needn’t get married until he’s thirty. It’s quite fashionable nowadays for gentlemen to wait until they’re getting on in life.” ”

“ Privately, Wilner told Mr. Rollinson that all our best politicians had sown their wild oats in early days, and gave an amusing and little-known anecdote concerning a member of the Cabinet.
“What he wants,” said old Rollinson, glancing at his son, “is concentration, if you know what it means, sir.”
“That will grow on him,” remarked the other lightly. “All he has to do just now is to make plenty of friends. ”

“ One or two inspected time tables and talked of going back to Lausanne.
“Why don’t you suggest something, Mr. Masterson?”
“Wish I had the necessary intelligence, Miss Rodgers. Is there anything we can arrange indoors, I wonder, to make the time go quickly whilst the weather is sorting itself? Think of something that you’re good at!”
“If you possessed a memory,” retorted the girl warmly, “you would recollect that I distinctly told you—”
The lady with the very fresh complexion interposed, with an apology. Would Mr. Masterson give her three minutes of his time in a corner of the vestibule? ”

“ I sat on the rocking chair and took some violent exercise for a few minutes in order to collect my thoughts. It seemed we were in a somewhat difficult corner. To stay in our room only meant that he would come and knock at the door; the wisest plan appeared to be to effect an escape. Carolyn Stokes, for once, agreed with me.
“I wish Mr. Chasemore were here,” she said.
We went along the corridor very quietly and crept down the staircase. From the last landing we could see him waiting near the desk of the concierge. There was no means of slipping past without being seen. ”

“ Understand, once for all, please, that I don’t allow a word to be said against my late husband—nor whispered.”
p. 203“Here’s a stray customer coming in, ma’am,” remarked the assistant. “Give me that armful, and you see to him.”
A stout man, after examining the day’s announcement outside, entered and sat down with the relieved air common to those who have walked a great distance and to those who find in any form of exercise a source of trouble; he took off his hat, hung up his overcoat, and said, with relish, “Here comes the busy part of my day!” ”

“ Crutchley told the messenger to add that he was not in the habit of being under an obligation to any one.
“I disliked the man,” declared Mr. Gleeson warmly, “from the very first. Understand, my dear, please, that not another penny of mine is to be spent in his shop—not another halfpenny.”
Another ring, and Mary, with a look of greater satisfaction, announced the vicar.
“Ah,” said the visitor, entering breezily, “Liberty Hall, Liberty Hall. This is extremely satisfactory. How are we this evening? Settling down to country life? That’s good. ”