Thereby Hangs a Tale Part 63

She smiled sadly at Richard, and waved him to a chair, to have taken which would have caused the immolation of a widow's cap--which, however, Mrs Fiddison rescued, and perched awry upon her head, to be out of the way.

"This gentleman wants apartments, Mrs F.," said Mrs Jenkles.

"Mine are to let," said Mrs Fiddison, sadly; "but does the gentleman play anything bra.s.s?"

Richard stared, and then remembered about the last lodger.

"Oh, dear, no," he said, smiling.

"Because I don't think I could bear it again, let alone the neighbours'

lodgers," said Mrs Fiddison. "I might put up with strings, or wood, but I could not manage bra.s.s."

"I do not play any instrument," said Richard, looking at the lady in a troubled way, as her head drooped over the cap she was making, and she gazed at it like a weeping widow on a funeral card.

"So many orchestral gentlemen live about here," said Mrs Fiddison.

"You can hear the double ba.s.s quite plain at Cheadley's, next door but one; but Waggly's have given the kettledrum notice."

"Indeed," said Richard, glancing at Mrs Jenkles, who stood smoothing her ap.r.o.n.

"Yes," said Mrs Fiddison, holding out the white c.r.a.pe starched grief before him, so that he might see the effect of her handiwork. "The last new pattern, sir."

Richard stared at Mrs Jenkles, and that lady came to his a.s.sistance.

"Mrs F. makes weeds for a wholesale house, sir."

"They ought to be called flowers of grief, Mrs Jenkles," said the lady.

"A nice quiet, genteel business, sir; and if you don't object to the smell of the c.r.a.pe, you'd not know there was anything going on in the house."

"Oh, I'm sure I shouldn't mind," said Richard.

"Prr-oooomp!" went something which sounded like young thunder coming up in the cellar.

"That's the double ba.s.s at Cheadley's, sir," said Mrs Fiddison; "and, as I was a-saying, you'll find the rooms very quiet, for Waggly's have given the kettledrum notice. Mrs Waggly said she was sure it was that made her have the bile so bad; and I shouldn't wonder if it was."

"And the terms," said Richard.

"You are sure you don't play anything bra.s.s, sir?" said Mrs Fiddison, looking at him with her head all on one side, as if to say, "Now, don't deceive a weak woman!"

"Indeed, I am not musical at all," said Richard, smiling.

"Because it isn't pleasant, sir, for a landlady who wishes to make things comfortable," continued Mrs Fiddison, smiling at the cap--which she had now put on her left fist--as if it were a face.

"It can't be, of course." said Richard, getting impatient.

"Mr Took, my last lodger, sir, played the rumboon; and sometimes of a morning, when he was doing his octaves, it used to quite make my brain buzz."

"I think the rooms would suit me," said Richard, glancing round.

"Thank you, sir," said Mrs Fiddison, wiping one eye with a sc.r.a.p of c.r.a.pe. "You can see the marks all over the wall now."

"Marks--wall?" said Richard.

"Ah, you don't understand the rumboon, sir," said Mrs Fiddison, pointing with a pair of scissors to various little dents and scratches on the wall, as she still held up the widow's cap. "Those places are what he used to make when he shot the thing out to get his low notes-- doing his octaves, sir."

"Indeed," said Richard, recalling the action of the trombone player in the marine band on board his last s.h.i.+p.

"Perhaps you'd like to see the bedroom, sir?"

"Would you mind seeing that for me, Mrs Jenkles?" said Richard.

"It's plain, sir, but everything at Mrs Fiddison's here is as clean as hands can make it," said Mrs Jenkles, glancing from one to the other.

"Then it will do," said Richard. "And the terms?"

"Seven s.h.i.+llings my last lodger paid me, sir," said Mrs Fiddison, drooping more and more, and evidently now much impressed by one of Richard's boots. "I did hope to get seven and six for them now, as there's a new table-cover."

Richard glanced at the new cotton check on the table.

"Then I'll pay you seven and sixpence," he said.

"The last being full of holes he made when smoking," said Mrs Fiddison.

"Then that's settled," said Richard. "Mrs--Mrs--"

"Jenkles, sir," said the cabman's wife, smiling.

"Mrs Jenkles, I'm much obliged to you for your trouble," he said.

"And so am I," said Mrs Fiddison, removing a tear once more with a sc.r.a.p of c.r.a.pe. "My dear," she continued, fixing a band to the cap, and holding it out--"isn't that sweet!"

Mrs Jenkles nodded.

"I think the gentleman wants the rooms at once," she said, glancing at Richard.

"Yes, that I do," he replied. "I'll fetch my portmanteau over directly."

"Oh, dear!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs Fiddison--"so soon."

And with some show of haste, she took a widow's cap off a painted plaster Milton on the chimneypiece, another from Shakespeare, and revealed, by the removal of a third, the celebrated Highland laddie, in blue and red porcelain, taking leave of a green Highland la.s.s, with a china sheep sticking to one of her unstockinged legs.

Half an hour after, Richard was sitting by the open window, looking across the street at where a thin, white hand was busy watering the fuchsias and geraniums in the window, and from time to time he caught a glimpse of Netta's sweet, sad face.

Then he drew back, for two men came along the street. The first, black-browed and evil-eyed, he recollected as the fellow with whom he had had the encounter on the race day, and this man paused for a moment as he reached Sam Jenkles's door, turned sharply round, pointed at it, and then went on; the second, nodding shortly as he came up, raised his hand, and knocked, standing glancing sharply up and down the street, while Richard mentally exclaimed--"What does he want here?" Then the door opened, there was a short parley with Mrs Jenkles, and the man entered, leaving Richard puzzled and wondering, as he said, half aloud--

"What could these men be doing here?"

Volume 3, Chapter V.

BETWEEN FRIENDS.