the transience of things human was wonderfully illustrated in the next fortnight. a short and drab account of the nocturnal discoveries of mr. belrose at t. t.'s appeared in one morning paper, and within six hours the evening papers, with their sure instinct for the important, had lifted riceyman steps to a height far above prize-fighting, national economics and the embroiled ruin of europe. such trivialities vanished from the contents-bills, which displayed nothing but "mysterious death of a miser in clerkenwell" (the home of bolshevism), "astounding story of love and death," "midnight tragedy in king's cross road," and similar titles, legends and captions. riceyman steps was filled with ferreting special reporters and photographers. the morning papers next following elaborated the tale. the steps became the cynosure of all england and the subject of cables to america, south africa and the antipodes. the steps rose dizzily to unique fame. the coroner's inquest on the body of henry earlforward was packed like a divorce court on an illustrious day and stenographed verbatim. jurymen who were summoned to it esteemed themselves fortunate.
the reverend augustus earlforward, a wesleyan methodist missionary, home for a holiday from his labours in the west indies, and brother of the deceased, found himself in a moment extremely famous. he had nearly missed the boat at kingston, jamaica, and he saw the hand of providence in the fact that he had not missed it. he had not met his younger brother for over thirty years, nor heard from him; did not even know his[pg 309] address; had scarcely thought of trying to hunt him up. and then at tea in the thackeray hotel, bloomsbury, his stern eyes had seen the name of earlforward written large in a newspaper. the affair was the most marvellous event, the most marvellous coincidence, of his long and honourable career. wisely he flew to a solicitor. he caused himself to be represented at the inquest. he had reached england in a critical mood, for, like many colonials, he suspected that all was not well with the blundering and decadent old country. and the revelations of life in clerkenwell richly confirmed his suspicions, which did not surprise him, because much commerce with negroes had firmly established in his mind the conviction that he could never be wrong. from the start he had his ideas about elsie, the servant-girl asleep with a young man in her bedroom. they were not nice ideas, but it is to be remembered that he was taking a holiday from the preaching and practice of christian charity. his legal representative put strange questions to elsie at the inquest (during which it was testified, after post-mortem, that henry had died of a cancer at the junction of the gullet and the cardiac end of the stomach), and these questions were reinforced by the natural cynicism and incredulity of the coroner. elsie was saved from opprobrium by dr. raste's statement that she had called him in to the young man. elsie indeed was cheered by her inflamed friends as she left the court. she said never a word about the coroner or the missionary afterwards, and, inexcusably, she never forgave either of them. but the missionary forgave elsie and permitted her and the sick young man to remain in the house. neither mr. nor mrs. earlforward had made a will, and the missionary was put into a good humour by the proof that the wealthy violet had left no next-of-kin. thus the whole of her property, in addition to the whole of henry's, went to augustus, whereas if violet had had next-of-kin augustus would have got only half of violet's property.
clerkenwell expected that the world-glory of the[pg 310] steps would continue indefinitely; but it withered as quickly as it had flowered, and by the afternoon of the morrow of the inquest it had utterly died. the joint funeral of the earlforwards did not receive a line in the daily press. nevertheless it constituted a great spectacle in king's cross road—not by reason of its intrinsic grandeur (for it fell short of henry's conception of the obsequies which he would bestow on his wife), but by reason of the vast multitude of sightseers and followers.
the reverend augustus, heir to a very comfortable competency unwittingly amassed for him by the devices of mr. arb the clerk of works, the prudent policy of mr. earlforward and the imitativeness of violet, found himself seriously inconvenienced for ready cash, because before he could touch the heritage he had to fulfil all sorts of expensive and tedious formalities and tiresomely to prove certain facts which he deemed to be self-evident—as, for instance, that he himself was legitimate. he saw no end to the business, and he cabled to the connexional authorities in jamaica that he should take extra leave. he did not ask for extra leave; in his quality of a rich man he merely took it, and heavenly propaganda had to be postponed. the phrasing of that cable was one of his compensations in a trying ordeal.
he had various other compensations, of which the chief was undoubtedly the status of landlord with unoccupied property at his disposition. not only all clerkenwell, but apparently all london, learnt in a few hours that he had this status. scores of people, rendered desperate by the house-famine, telegraphed to him; many scores of people wrote to him; and some dozens personally called upon him at his hotel, and they all supplicated him to do them the great favour of letting to them the t. t. riceyman premises on lease at a high rent. a few desired to buy the property. the demand was so intense and widespread as to induce in augustus the belief that he was a potential benefactor of mankind.[pg 311] preferring to enjoy the fruits of riches without being troubled by the more irksome responsibilities thereof, he decided to sell and not to let. and he entered into a contract for sale to mr. belrose. he chose mr. belrose because mr. belrose and all his women were wesleyan methodists, and also perhaps because mr. belrose did not haggle and was ready and anxious to complete the transaction, and, indeed, paid a substantial deposit before the legal formalities of augustus' title to the property were finished.
thenceforward event succeeded event with increasing rapidity. the entire stock of books was sold by private treaty to a dealer in charing cross road, who swallowed it up and digested it with gigantic ease. the books went away quietly enough in vans. then the furniture and the clothes were sold (including mr. earlforward's virgin suits and shirts) to another sort of dealer in islington. and a pantechnicon came for the furniture, etc., including the safe and the satin shoe, and it obtained permission from the highways authorities to pass over the pavement and stand on the flagstones of the steps at the shop-door. and furniture was swept into it almost like leaves swept by the wind. and on that afternoon mr. belrose arrived from "across" with a group of shop-fitting and decorating contractors, and in the emptying interiors of the home and amid the flight of pieces of furniture mr. belrose discussed with the experts what he should do, and at what cost, to annihilate the very memory of t. t. riceyman's by means of improvements, fresh dispositions, and paint.
idlers sauntered about watching the gorging of the pantechnicon and the erasing of t. t. riceyman's from the steps. and what occupied their minds was not the disappearance of every trace of the sojourn on earth of henry and violet earlforward, but the conquering progress of that powerful and prosperous personage, charles belrose, who was going to have two shops, and who would without doubt make them both pay handsomely. henry and violet might never have lived. they were[pg 312] almost equally strangers to the reverend augustus, who, moreover, was lying somewhat ill at his hotel—result of the strain of inheriting. violet had always been regarded as a foreigner by the district; she had had no roots there. and as for henry, though he was not a foreigner but of the true ancient blood of clerkenwell, and though the tale of his riches commanded respect, he had never won affection, and was classed sardonically as an oddity, which designation would have puzzled and annoyed him considerably.
violet and henry did, however, survive in one place, elsie's heart. she arrived now in the steps, dressed in mourning—new black frock, new black hat, the old black coat, and black gloves. she had bought mourning from a sense of duty and propriety. she had not wished to incur the expense, but conscience forced her to incur the expense. she was carrying a shabby grip-bag, which seemed rather heavy for her, and she was rather flushed and breathless from exercise of an unaccustomed sort. a dowdy, over-plump figure, whom nobody would have looked twice at. a simple, heavy face, common except for the eyes and lips; with a harassed look; fatigued also. she had been out nearly all day. she pretended not to notice it, but the sight of the formidable pantechnicon, squatted in the steps, brought moisture into her eyes.
she sturdily entered the shop, which, charles belrose and his company of renovators having left, was empty save for one or two pieces of furniture waiting their proper niches in the pantechnicon. a man was pulling down the shelves and thus destroying the bays. dead planks which had once been living, burden-bearing shelves, were stacked in a pile along one wall. she had to wait at the foot of the stairs while a section of violet's wardrobe awkwardly descended in the hairy arms of two samsons. then she went up, and on the first floor peeped into all the rooms one after another; they were scenes of confusion, dirt, dust, higgle-de-piggledyness; difficult to believe that they had ever made part of a home, been[pg 313] regularly cleaned, watched over like helpless children incapable of taking care of themselves. she lugged the grip-bag up the second flight, and went into the spare-room, which was quite empty, stripped to the soiled and damaged walls—even the plant-pots were gone from the window-sills; and she went into the kitchen, where the tap kept guard with its eternal drip-drip over perfect desolation.
at last she went into her bedroom, which by a magic ukase from on high in the thackeray hotel had been preserved from the sack. a fire was cheerfully burning; all was as usual to the casual glance, but the shut drawers were empty, and elsie's box and umbrella had gone back to riceyman square, where she had been sleeping since the funeral. joe was sufficiently recovered to sleep alone in the house, and had had no objection to doing so. joe, fully dressed for the grand exodus, sat waiting on the sole chair. he smiled. dropping the bag, she smiled. they kissed. with his limited but imaginative intelligence joe did not see that elsie was merely elsie. he saw within the ill-fitting mourning a saviour, a powerful protectress, a bright angel, a being different from, and superior to, any other being. they were dumb and happy in the island of homeliness around which swirled the tide of dissolution and change. elsie picked up a piece of bread-and-butter from a plate and began to eat it.
"didn't yer get any dinner?" joe asked anxiously. she nodded, and the nod was a lie.
"i got your bag and all your things in it," she said. "there's a clean collar. ye'd better put it on."
munching, she unfastened the bag.
"and i've got the licence from the registry office," she said. he scrutinized the licence, which by its complexity and incomprehensibility intimidated him. he was much relieved and very grateful that he had not had to go forth and get the licence himself. the clean collar, which elsie affixed, made a wonderful improvement in joe's frayed and dilapidated appearance.
"has the doctor been to look at ye?" elsie asked.[pg 314] joe shook his head. "well, ye can't go till he's been to look at ye."
the doctor had re-engaged joe, who was to migrate direct to myddelton square that afternoon and would take up his duties gradually, as health permitted. he had already been tentatively out in the morning, but only to the other side of king's cross road to get a shave. perhaps it was to be regretted that joe was going off in one of mr. earlforward's grey flannel shirts. elsie, had she been strictly honest, would have washed this shirt and returned it to the wardrobe, but she thought that joe needed it, and her honesty fell short of the ideal.
there was a step on the stair. the doctor came into the island. and he himself was an island, detached, self-contained, impregnable as ever. he entered the room as though it was a room and not the emptying theatre of heroic and unforgettable drama, and as though nothing worth mentioning had happened of late in riceyman steps.
"has my daughter called here for me?" he asked abruptly, deposing his prim hat on the little yellow chest of drawers.
"no, sir."
"ah! she was to meet me here," he said in a casual, even tone. and yet there was something in his voice plainly indicating to the observant that deep down in his recondite mind burned a passionate pride in his daughter.
"i think you'll do, joe," he decided, after some examination of the malaria patient. "i see you've had a shave."
"elsie said i'd better, sir."
"yes. makes you feel brighter, doesn't it? well, you can be getting along. by the way, elsie"—he coughed. "we've been wondering at home whether you'd care to go and have a chat with mrs. raste?"
"yes, sir. but what about, sir? joe?"
"well, the fact is, we thought perhaps you'd like"—he gave a short, nervous laugh—"to join the staff. i[pg 315] don't know what they call it. cook-general. no. not quite that, because there'd be joe. there'd be you and joe, you see."
elsie drew back, alarmed—so alarmed that she did not even say "thank you."
"oh! i couldn't do that, sir! i couldn't cook—for you, sir. i couldn't undertake it, sir. i'm really only a charwoman, sir. i couldn't face it, sir."
"but i thought you'd been learning some cookery from—er—mrs. earlforward?"
"oh, no, sir. not as you might say. only gas-ring, sir."
this was the once ambitious girl who had dreamed of acquiring the skill to wait at table in just such a grand house as the doctor's. extreme diffidence was not the only factor in her decision, which she made instantly and positively as a strong-minded, sensible, masterful woman without any reference to the views of her protected, fragile idol, joe—for a quality of independence, hardness, had begun to appear in elsie sprickett. the fact was that she wanted a separate home as a refuge for joe in case of need, and she was arranging to rent a room in the basement of her old abode in riceyman square. out of the measureless fortune of ￡32 which she had accumulated in the post office savings bank, she intended to furnish her home. it had been agreed with the doctor that after the marriage joe should have one whole night off per week. she would resume charing, which was laborious but more "free" than a regular situation. if joe should have a fit of violence it could spend itself on her in the home. she even desired to suffer at his hands as a penance for the harshness of her earlier treatment of him, of her well-meant banishing of the innocent victim deranged by his experiences in the war. with her earnings and his they would have an ample income. the fine sagacious scheme was complete in her brain. and the doctor's suggestion attacked it in its fundamentals. at myddelton square, worried by unaccustomed duties and the presence of others, she might have scenes with joe and be unable to[pg 316] manage him. no! she must be independent; she must have liberty of action; and this could not be if she was a servant in a grand house.
"oh! very well, very well," said the doctor, frigid as usual, but not offended. joe said no word, knowing that he must not meddle in such high matters of policy.
scatterings, expostulations, reproofs on the stairs. miss raste entered, with the excited dog jack. her father had told her that if she saw no one familiar below she must mount two flights of stairs and knock at the door facing her at the top; but, in her eagerness, she had forgotten to knock. miss raste was growing in stature daily. her legs were fabulously long, and it was said of her at home that in time she would be in a position to stoop and kiss the crown of her father's head. to everyone's surprise she impulsively rushed at elsie with thin arms outstretched and kissed her. elsie blushed, as well she might. miss raste had spoken to elsie only once before, but out of the memory of elsie's face and that brief meeting she had constructed a lovely fairy-tale, and a chance word of her mother's had set her turning it into reality. she had dreamed of having the adorable, fat, comfortable, kind elsie for a servant in the house, and her parents were going to arrange the matter. for twenty-four hours she had been in a fever about it.
"is she coming, papa?" the child demanded urgently.
"no, she can't. she says she can't cook, and so she won't come."
miss raste burst into tears. her lank body shook with sobs. everybody was grievously constrained. nobody knew what to do, least of all the doctor. jack stood still in front of the fire.
"mummy would have taught you to cook," miss raste spluttered, almost inarticulately. "mummy's awfully nice."
elsie's sagacious scheme for her married life was dissipated in a moment. the scheme became absurd, impossible, inconceivable. elsie was utterly defeated by the[pg 317] child's affection, ardour, and sorrow. she felt nearly the same responsibility towards the child as towards joe. she was the child's for ever. and she had kissed the child. having kissed the child, could she be a judas?
"oh, then i'll go and see mrs. raste," said elsie, half smiling and half crying.
this was indeed a very strange episode, upsetting as it did all optimistic theories about the reasonableness of human nature and the influence of logic over the springs of conduct. no one quite knew where he was. dr. raste was intensely delighted and proud, and yet felt that he ought to have a grievance. joe was delighted, but egotistically. elsie was both happy and sad, but rather more happy than sad. miss raste laughed with glee, while the tears still ran down her delicate cheeks. jack barked once.
not that jack had that very mysterious intuitive comprehension of the moods of others which in the popular mind is usually attributed to dogs, children, and women. no! jack had heard footsteps on the stairs. a tousled, white-sleeved man in a green apron entered.
"we're ready for here now, miss," he announced to elsie.
and without waiting for permission he began rapidly to roll up the bedclothes in one vast bundle. next he collected the crockery. the bedroom had ceased to be immune from the general sack.
"they didn't have a lot of luck," said mr. belrose to elsie and joe that night in the steps at the locked door of t. t.'s. it was the decent, wizened little old fellow's epitaph on henry earlforward and violet. it was his apology for dropping the keys of t. t.'s into his pocket, and for the blaze of electricity from his old shop, and for the forlorn darkness of t. t.'s, and for the fact that he was prospering while others were dead. he did not attribute the fate of the earlforwards to henry's formidable character. he could not think scientifically, and even had he been able to do so good nature would have pre[pg 318]vented him. and even if he had attempted to do so he might have thought wrong. the affair, like all affairs of destiny, was excessively complex.
elsie, for her part, laid much less stress than mr. belrose on luck. "with a gentleman like he was," she thought, meaning henry earlforward, "something was bound to happen sooner or later." she held mr. earlforward responsible for her mistress's death, but her notions of the value of evidence were somewhat crude. and, similarly, she held herself responsible for her master's death. she had noticed that he had never been the same since the orgy of her wedding-cake, and she had a terrible suspicion that immoderate wedding-cake caused cancer. thus she added one more to the uncounted theories of the origin of cancer, and nobody yet knows enough of the subject to be able to disprove elsie's theory. however, that night elsie, with the sensations of a homicide, the ruin of a home and family behind her, a jailbird on her left arm and his heavy grip-bag on her right, could still be happy as she went up the steps into riceyman square, and called at her old home to make certain dispositions, and passed on in the chill darkness to myddelton square. she was apprehensive about future dangers and her own ability to cope with them; but she was always apprehensive.
joe, belonging to the contemplative and passionate variety of mankind, was not at all apprehensive. he knew his soul as intimately as a pretty woman knows the externals of her body. he was conscious of joy in retreading with elsie the old familiar streets. he had a perfect, worshipping faith in elsie's affection and in her powers. his one affliction was to see elsie lugging the heavy grip-bag; but even this was absurd, for he had not yet the strength to carry it, and he well knew that she would never have permitted him to try.
people saw a young, humble, mutually-absorbed couple strolling along and looking at one another. more correctly, people did not see a humble couple, any more than people at a court ball see a fashionably dressed and[pg 319] self-sure couple. elsie and joe were characteristic of the district. they would have had to look much worse than they did in order to be classed as humble in clerkenwell. nor were people shocked at the spectacle of the woman lugging a heavy grip-bag while the man carried naught. such dreadful things were often witnessed in clerkenwell.
