JOAN HASTE, H. RIDER HAGGARD [free ereaders TXT] 📗

in a /cul-de-sac/, a recommendation to the lover of quiet, as of course no traffic could pass through it; but, probably on this account, it was the happy hunting ground of hundreds of dirty children, whose shrill voices echoed through it from dawn to dark, as they played and fought and screamed. The houses were tall, and covered with a dingy stucco, that here and there had peeled away in flakes, exposing patches of yellow brick; the doors were much in need of paint, some of the area railings were broken, and the window curtains for the most part presented the appearance of having been dried in a coal cellar. Indeed, the general squalor and the stuffy odours of the place filled Joan's heart with dismay, for she had never before visited the poorer quarters of a large town.

"Are you sure that this is Kent Street, Paddington?" she asked feebly of the driver.

"If you don't believe me, miss, look for yourself," he answered gruffly, pointing to the corner of a house upon which the name was painted. "No. 13, you said, didn't you? Well, here it is, and here's your box," he added, bumping her luggage down upon the steps; "and my fare is three-and-six, please."

Joan paid the three-and-sixpence, and the sulky cabman drove off, yelling at the children in front of get out of the way of his horse, and lashing with his whip at those who clung behind.

Left to herself, Joan pulled the bell and waited. Nobody came, so she pulled it again, and yet a third time; after which she discovered that it was broken, and there being no knocker, was reduced to rapping on the door with the handle of her umbrella. Presently it was opened with great violence, and a sour-faced slattern with a red nose asked shrilly--

"Who the dickens are you, that you come a-banging of the door to bits? This ain't the Al'ambra, my fine miss. Don't you make no mistake."

"My name is Haste," said Joan humbly, "and I have come here to lodge."

"Then you'd better haste out of this, for you won't lodge here." And the vixen prepared to slam the door.

"Does not Mrs. Thomas live here?" asked Joan desperately.

"No, she don't. Mrs. Thomas was sold up three days ago, and you'll find her in the Marylebone Workhouse, I believe. I am the caretaker. Now take that box off those steps, and cut it sharp, or I'll send for the policeman." And before Joan could say another word the door was shut in her face.

She turned round in despair. Where was she to go, and what could she do in this horrible place? By now a crowd had collected about her, composed largely of dirty children and dreadful blear-eyed men in very wide-skirted tattered coats, who made audible remarks about her personal appearance.

"Now then," screamed the vixen from the area, "will you take thim things off the steps?"

Thus adjured, Joan made a desperate effort to lift the box, but she was weak with agitation and could not stir it.

"Carry yer things for yer, miss?" said one creature in a raucous whisper. "Don't you mind him, miss," put in another; "he's a blooming area sneak, he is. You give 'em me." "Hullo, Molly, does your mother know you're out?" asked a painted-faced slut, who evidently had taken more to drink than was good for her; and so forth.

For a few moments Joan bore it. Then she sank down upon the box and began to weep--a sight that touched the better feelings of some of the men, for one of them offered to punch the "blooming 'ead" of anybody who annoyed her.

It was at this juncture that Joan, chancing to look up, saw a little pale-faced, straw-coloured woman, who was neatly dressed in black, pushing her way through the crowd towards her.

"What is the matter, my dear?" said the little woman, in a small and gentle voice.

"I have come from the country here to lodge," answered Joan, choking back her tears; "and there's nobody in the house except that dreadful person, and I don't know where to go."

The little woman shook her head doubtfully; and at that moment once more the fiend in the area yelled aloud, "If you don't get off thim steps I'll come and put you off. I'm caretaker here, and I'll show you."

"Oh! what can I do?" said Joan, wringing her hands.

The sight of her distress seemed to overcome the scruples of the little woman; at any rate she made one of the loafers lift the box and bring it across the street.

"Now, my dear, take your bag and your umbrella, and follow me."

Joan obeyed with joy: just then she would have followed her worst enemy anywhere, also her new friend's face inspired her with confidence. On the other side of the street the little woman opened the door of a house--it was No. 8--with a latchkey, and Joan noticed that on it was a brass plate inscribed "Mrs. Bird, Dressmaker."

"Go in," she said. "No, I will settle with the man; he will cheat you."

She went in, and found herself in a tiny passage of spotless cleanliness; and, her luggage having been set down beside her, the door was closed, and the crowd which had accompanied them across the street melted away.

"Oh! thank you," said Joan. "What do I owe you?"

"Threepence, my dear; it is a penny too much, but I would not stop to argue with the man."

Joan fumbled in her pocket and found the threepence.

"Thank you, my dear. I am glad to see that you pay your debts so readily. It is a good sign, but, alas! appearances are often deceptive"; and her hostess led the way into a small parlour, beautifully neat and well kept. "Sit down," said the little woman, lifting a dress that she was in process of making from a chair which she offered to Joan, "and take a cup of tea. I was just going to have some myself. Bobby, will you be quiet?" This last remark was addressed to a canary, which was singing at the top of its voice in a cage that hung in the window. "I am afraid that you find him rather shrill," she went on, nodding towards the canary, "but I have so much to do with silence that I don't mind the noise."

"Not at all: I like birds," said Joan.

"I am glad of that, my dear, for my name is Bird. Quite a coincidence, isn't it--not but what coincidences are deceptive things. And now, here is your tea."

Joan took the tea and drank it thankfully, while Mrs. Bird watched her.

"My dear, you are very handsome," she said at length, "if you will forgive me for making a personal remark--/dreadfully/ handsome. I am sure that, being so handsome, you cannot be happy, since God does not give us everything; and I only hope that you are /good/. You look good, or I should not have come to help you just now; but it is impossible to put any trust in appearances."

"I am afraid that I am neither very happy nor very good," answered Joan, "but I am most grateful to you. I have come up from the country to look for work, and I want to find a decent lodging. Perhaps you can help me, for I have never been to London before, and do not know where to go. My name is Joan Haste."

"Perhaps I can, and perhaps I can't," said Mrs. Bird. "It depends. Yours is a very strange story, and I am not sure that I believe it. It is not usual for beautiful young women like you to wander to London in this kind of way--that is, if they are respectable. How am I to know that you are respectable? That you look respectable does not prove you to be so. Do your friends know that you have come here, or have you perhaps run away from home?"

"I hope that I am respectable," answered Joan meekly; "and some of my friends know about my coming."

"Then they should have made better arrangements for you. That house to which you were going was not respectable; it is a mercy that it was shut up."

"Not respectable!" said Joan. "Surely Mr. Levinger could never have been so wicked," she added to herself.

"No: it used to be a while ago--then there were none but very decent people there; but recently the woman, Mrs. Thomas, took to drink, and that was why she was sold up."

"Indeed," said Joan; "I suppose that my friend did not know. I fancy it is some years since he was acquainted with the house."

"Your friend! What sort of friend?" said Mrs. Bird suspiciously.

"Well, he is a kind of guardian of mine."

"Then he ought to have known better than to have sent you to a house without making further inquiries. This world is a changeable place, but nothing changes in it more quickly than lodging-houses, at any rate in Kent Street."

"So it seems," answered Joan sadly; "but now, what am I to do?"

"I don't know, Miss Haste--I think you said Haste was your name; although," she added nervously, sweeping off her lap some crumbs of the bread and butter that she had been eating, "if I was quite sure that you are respectable I might be able to make a suggestion."

"What suggestion, Mrs. Bird?"

"Well, I have two rooms to let here. My last lodger, a most estimable man, and a very clever one too--he was an accountant, my dear--died in them a fortnight ago, and was carried out last Friday; but then, you see, it is not everybody that would suit me as a tenant, and there are many people whom I might not suit. There are three questions to be considered; the question of character, the question of rent, and the question of surroundings. Now, as to the question of character----"

"I have a certificate," broke in Joan mildly, as she produced a document that she had procured from Mr. Biggen, the clergyman at Bradmouth. Mrs. Bird put on a pair of spectacles and perused it carefully.

"Satisfactory," she said, "very satisfactory, presuming it to be genuine; though, mind you, I have known even clergymen to be deceived. Now, would you like to see my references?"

"No, thank you, not at all," said Joan. "I am quite sure that /you/ are respectable."

"How can you be sure of anything of the sort? Well, we will pass over that and come to the rent. My notion of rent for the double furnished room on the first floor, including breakfast, coals, and all extras, is eight shillings and sixpence a week. The late accountant used to pay ten-and-six, but for a woman I take off two shillings; not but what I think, from the look of you, that you would eat more breakfast than the late accountant did."

"That seems very reasonable," said Joan. "I should be very glad to pay that."

"Yes, my dear, you might be very glad to pay it, but you will excuse me for saying that the desire does not prove the ability. How am I to know that you would pay?"

"I have plenty of money," answered Joan wearily; "I can give you a month's rent in advance, if you like."

"Plenty of money!" said the little woman, holding up her hands in amazement, "and that /very/ striking appearance! And yet you wander about the world in this fashion! Really, my dear, I do not know what to make of you."

"For the matter of that, Mrs. Bird, I do not quite know what to make of myself. But shall we get on with the business?--because, you see, if we do not come to an agreement, I must search elsewhere. What was it you said about surroundings?"

"That reminds me," answered Mrs. Bird; "before I go a step further I must consult my two babies. Now, do you move your chair a little, and sit so. Thank you, that will do." And she trotted off through some folding doors, one