"joe," inquired elsie, "where's your papers?"
she had brought his clothes—dry, folded, and possibly wearable—back into her bedroom. she had found nothing in the pockets of the suit except some cigarette-card portraits of famous footballers, a charred pipe, three french sous, and a broken jack-knife. these articles, the raiment, and a pair of battered shoes which she had pushed under the bed and forgotten, seemed to be all that joe had to show for more than twenty years of strenuous and dangerous life on earth—much less even than elsie could show. the paucity of his possessions did not trouble her, and scarcely surprised her, for she knew that very many unmarried men, with no incentive to accumulate what they could immediately squander in personal use, had no more reserves than joe; but the absence of the sacred "papers" disturbed her. every man in her world could, when it came to the point, produce papers of some sort from somewhere—army-discharge, pension documents, testimonials, birth-certificate, etc., etc. even the tramps who flitted in and out of rowton house had their papers to which they rightly attached the greatest importance. no man in elsie's world could get far along without papers, unless specially protected by heaven; and, sooner or later—generally sooner than later—heaven grew tired of protecting.
all day elsie had been awaiting an opportunity to speak to joe about his papers. the opportunity had now come. mr. earlforward could be left for an hour or so. joe was apparently in less pain. the two bedrooms were tidied up. both men had been fed. joe had had more[pg 301] quinine. she could not sponge him again till the morrow. she herself had drunk two cups of tea, and eaten the last contents of the larder. she had lighted a new candle—the last candle—in the candlestick. she had brought coal and mended the fire. the next morning she would have a great deal to do and to arrange—getting money, marketing, seeing the doctor and mrs. belrose, discussing the funeral with mr. earlforward—terrible anxieties—but for the present she was free.
joe made no answer. he seemed to be trying to frame sentences. she encouraged him with a repetition:
"where's your papers? i can't find 'em nowhere. you haven't lost them, have ye?" her brow contracted in apprehension.
"i sold 'em," said joe, in his deep, vibrating and yet feeble voice. he looked away.
"sold 'em, joe? ye never sold 'em!"
"yes i have, i tell ye. i sold 'em yesterday morning."
"but, joey——"
"i sold 'em yesterday morning to a man as came to meet a man as came out of pentonville same time as me."
"pentonville! joe, d'ye mean ye've been to prison?" he nodded. "what a shame!" she exclaimed in protest, not at his having done anything wicked enough to send him to prison, but at the police having been wicked enough to send him to prison. she assumed instinctively and positively that he was an innocent victim of the ruthless blue men whom some people know only as pilots of perambulators across busy streets.
"there was no option, ye know, so i had fourteen days."
she dropped on her knees at the bedside, and put her left arm under his neck and threw her right arm over his waist, and with it felt again the familiar shape of his waist through the bedclothes, and gazed into his homely, ugly face upon which soft, dark hair—a beard on the chin—was sprouting. this faith and tenderness made joe cry.[pg 302]
"tell me," she murmured, scarcely hoping that he would succeed in any narrative.
"oh, it's nothin'," joe replied gloomily. "armistice day, ye know. i had my afternoon, and i went out."
"were ye in a place, joe?"
"i had a part-time place in oxford street—carrying coal upstairs, and cleaning brasses and sweeping and errands. and a bed. yes, in the basement. sort of a watchman. doctor he give me a testimonial. least, he sent it me when i wrote and asked him." (no doubt whatever that she had been unjust to that doctor!) "i went down to piccadilly to see the sights, and when it was about dark i see our old divisional general in a damn big car with two young ladies. there was a block, ye see, in piccadilly circus, and he was stopped by the kerb where them flower-girls are, ye know, by the fountain, and i was standing there as close as i am to you, elsie. we used to call him the slaughterer. that was how we called him. we never called him nothin' else. and there he was with his two rows o' ribbons and his flash women, perhaps they weren't flash, and i didn't like the look of his face—hard, ye know. cruel. we knowed him, we did. and then i thought of the two minutes' silence, and hats off and stand at 'tention, and the cenotaph, and it made me laugh. i laughed at him through the glass. and he didn't like it, he didn't. i was as close to him as i am to you, ye see. and he lets down the glass and says something about insultin' behaviour to these ladies, and i put my tongue out to him. that tore it, that did. that fair put the lid on. i felt something coming over me—ye know. then there was a crowd, and i caught a policeman one on the shoulder. oh, they marched me off, three of 'em! the doctor at the station said i was drunk, me as hadn't had a drop for three days! next morning the beak he said he'd treat me lenient because it was armistice day, and i'd had some and i'd fought for the old country, but assaulting an officer of the law, he couldn't let that pass. no option for that, so he give me fourteen days."[pg 303]
"but yer master, joe?"
"it was an old woman."
"wouldn't she——?"
"no, she wouldn't," said joe roughly. "and another thing, i didn't go back there either, afterwards."
"did ye leave yer things there?"
"yes. a bag and some things. and i shan't fetch it either."
"i shall!" said elsie resolutely. "i won't let 'er have 'em. i shall tell her you was taken ill, and i shall bring 'em away."
joe offered no remark.
"but why did ye sell yer papers, joe?"
"he give me four-and-six for 'em. i was on me uppers; he give me four-and-six, and then we went and had a meal after all that skilly and cocoa and dry bread. no good me going back. i'd left without notice, i had."
"but why didn't ye come to me straight, joey?"
joe didn't answer. after all this inordinate loquacity of his, he had resumed his great silence.
elsie still gazed at him. the candle light went down and up. a burst of heavy traffic shook the bed. and now elsie had a desire to tell joe all about her own story, all about mr. earlforward and the death of mrs. earlforward, and the troubles awaiting her in the morning. she wanted to be confidential, and she wanted to discuss with him a plan for putting him on his feet again after he was better—for she was sure she could restore his self-respect to him, and him to his proper position in the world. but he did not seem interested in anything, not even in herself. he was absorbed in his aches and pains and fever. and she was very tired. so, without moving her arms, she just laid her head on his breast, and was indignant against the whole of mankind on his behalf, and regarded her harsh, pitiless self as the author of all his misfortunes and loved him.
