登陆注册
5393100000072

第72章

Listening to her, it was difficult, as she herself would frankly admit, to imagine her the once "arch Miss Lucretia Barry;" looking at her, to remember there had been an evening when she had been "the cynosure of every eye." One found it necessary to fortify oneself with perusal of underlined extracts from ancient journals, much thumbed and creased, thoughtfully lent to one for the purpose. Since those days Fate had woven round her a mantle of depression. She was now a faded, watery-eyed little woman, prone on the slightest provocation to sit down suddenly On the nearest chair and at once commence a history of her troubles. Quite unconscious of this failing, it was an idea of hers that she was an exceptionally cheerful person.

"But there, fretting's no good. We must grin and bear things in this world," she would conclude, wiping her eyes upon her apron. "It's better to laugh than to cry, I always say." And to prove that this was no mere idle sentiment, she would laugh then and there upon the spot.

Much stair-climbing had bestowed upon her a shortness of breath, which no amount of panting in her resting moments was able to make good.

"You don't know 'ow to breathe," explained our second floor front to her on one occasion, a kindly young man; "you don't swallow it, you only gargle with it. Take a good draught and shut your mouth; don't be frightened of it; don't let it out again till it's done something: that's what it's 'ere for."

He stood over her with his handkerchief pressed against her mouth to assist her; but it was of no use.

"There don't seem any room for it inside me," she explained.

Bells had become to her the business of life; she lived listening for them. Converse to her was a filling in of time while waiting for interruptions.

A bottle of whiskey fell into my hands that Christmas time, a present from a commercial traveller in the way of business. Not liking whiskey myself, it was no sacrifice for me to reserve it for the occasional comfort of Mrs. Peedles, when, breathless, with her hands to her side, she would sink upon the chair nearest to my door. Her poor, washed-out face would lighten at the suggestion.

"Ah, well," she would reply, "I don't mind if I do. It's a poor heart that never rejoices."

And then, her tongue unloosened, she would sit there and tell me stories of my predecessors, young men lodgers who like myself had taken her bed-sitting-rooms, and of the woes and misfortunes that had overtaken them. I gathered that a more unlucky house I could not have selected. A former tenant of my own room, of whom I strangely reminded her, had written poetry on my very table. He was now in Portland doing five years for forgery. Mrs. Peedles appeared to regard the two accomplishments as merely different expressions of the same art. Another of her young men, as she affectionately called us, had been of studious ambition. His career up to a point appeared to have been brilliant. "What he mightn't have been," according to Mrs.

Peedles, there was practically no saying; what he happened to be at the moment of conversation was an unpromising inmate of the Hanwell lunatic asylum.

"I've always noticed it," Mrs. Peedles would explain; "it's always the most deserving, those that try hardest, to whom trouble comes. I'm sure I don't know why."

I was glad on the whole when that bottle of whiskey was finished. A second might have driven me to suicide.

There was no Mr. Peedles--at least, not for Mrs. Peedles, though as an individual he continued to exist. He had been "general utility" at the Princess's--the old terms were still in vogue at that time--a fine figure of a man in his day, so I was given to understand, but one easily led away, especially by minxes. Mrs. Peedles spoke bitterly of general utilities as people of not much use.

For working days Mrs. Peedles had one dress and one cap, both black and void of ostentation; but on Sundays and holidays she would appear metamorphosed. She had carefully preserved the bulk of her stage wardrobe, even to the paste-decked shoes and tinsel jewelry.

Shapeless in classic garb as Hermia, or bulgy in brocade and velvet as Lady Teazle, she would receive her few visitors on Sunday evenings, discarded puppets like herself, with whom the conversation was of gayer nights before their wires had been cut; or, her glory hid from the ribald street beneath a mackintosh, pay her few calls. Maybe it was the unusual excitement that then brought colour into her furrowed cheeks, that straightened and darkened her eyebrows, at other times so singularly unobtrusive. Be this how it may, the change was remarkable, only the thin grey hair and the work-worn hands remaining for purposes of identification. Nor was the transformation merely one of surface. Mrs. Peedles hung on her hook behind the kitchen door, dingy, limp, discarded; out of the wardrobe with the silks and satins was lifted down to be put on as an undergarment Miss Lucretia Barry, like her costumes somewhat aged, somewhat withered, but still distinctly "arch."

In the room next to me lived a law-writer and his wife. They were very old and miserably poor. The fault was none of theirs. Despite copy-books maxims, there is in this world such a thing as ill-luck-persistent, monotonous, that gradually wears away all power of resistance. I learned from them their history: it was hopelessly simple, hopelessly uninstructive. He had been a schoolmaster, she a pupil teacher; they had married young, and for a while the world had smiled upon them. Then came illness, attacking them both: nothing out of which any moral could be deduced, a mere case of bad drains resulting in typhoid fever. They had started again, saddled by debt, and after years of effort had succeeded in clearing themselves, only to fall again, this time in helping a friend. Nor was it even a case of folly: a poor man who had helped them in their trouble, hardly could they have done otherwise without proving themselves ungrateful.

同类推荐
  • 政理

    政理

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Nisida

    Nisida

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 洪武圣政记

    洪武圣政记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 文苑诗格

    文苑诗格

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 有德女所问大乘经

    有德女所问大乘经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 一宠长欢:邪皇纵妻无度

    一宠长欢:邪皇纵妻无度

    裴映雪没想到自己睡了一觉,醒来就已经到了六年后。六年时间里,穿越女占用她的身体胡作非为,等她重新回归,一切都已经发生了翻天覆地的变化:她从裴家长房幺女一跃成为母仪天下的皇后,却因作恶多端、心思歹毒而被皇帝厌弃。爹娘无视她、兄姐憎恶她,就连青梅竹马的表哥也已经另娶他人。然而还有更艰险的挑战摆在面前——她该如何破除重重困难,和皇帝再生一个儿子巩固后位?简言之,这是一个萌萌哒的软妹纸无奈成长为高冷御姐的辛(刷)酸(新)血(下)泪(限)史。
  • 芳魂祭:千世劫

    芳魂祭:千世劫

    这是一个美丽、遗憾又凄凉的世界,这是一个关于爱和背叛的故事,爱情、情亲、权势、欲望、这些本是身外之外的牵挂,却最终让人性泯灭而毁灭了一切,然而,在经历了三千年的生死轮回以后,再回来面对这些的时候,悲剧还会再次发生吗?……
  • 四系魔法师

    四系魔法师

    作为偏房所生的邵峰,在邵家基本没有什么地位,他本以为自己就要那样子悲惨的过上一生,可谁知他竟然碰到一个可以改变他命运的人。邵峰觉得自己的人生之路或许会有改变。但异变突起,整个邵家竟然被各方势力联手灭掉。而邵峰则是被扔到了万丈深渊之下。那本是必死无疑的地步。可谁知邵峰竟然活了下来,并且还有了奇遇。
  • 管理中的心理学诡计

    管理中的心理学诡计

    从心理学的角度来看。那些易激发员工积极心理的管理方法都是最好的奖赏:相反,那些易引起员工反感的管理方法都是最差、最没有头脑的管理行为。管理学大师彼得·德鲁克如是说:管理是一种实践,其本质不在于“知”而在于“行”:其验证不在于“逻辑”而在于“成果”。罗唯一权威就是成就。管理的目的,就是让平凡的人做出不平凡的事。领导和管理是两个截然不同的概念,管理者的工作是计划与预算、组织及配置人员、控制并解决问题,其目的是建立秩序:领导者的工作是确定方向、整合相关者、激励和鼓舞员工,其目的是产生变革。
  • 写给女人的心灵能量书

    写给女人的心灵能量书

    本书所精选的世界上最有影响力的50位财智女性将会用她们的商战经历、职场际遇将所有读者关心的问题一一揭晓。她们有的是在商场上叱咤风云的CEO,有的是用自己的知性魅力传播文明的女主播,有的是在广告界呼风唤雨的女斗士,她们背景不一、性格迥异,但同样都具有能够让我们受益匪浅的财富智慧:永不放弃梦想的执著、战胜自我的勇气、坚韧与责任、仁爱和细致……这些成功的潜质,加上本书详尽的分析,将给读者呈现一本最具有指导意义的商道真经。
  • 噬天剑道

    噬天剑道

    千年后,天有异象。而属于星主的,终将会降临。极曜噬灵星,天外中最神秘的一颗星辰,深邃之间,宛如黑洞。身为天星宿主的少年莫封,体内同时有着强大的魔血传承。两者相辅相成,少年的命运将何去何从?既与天道不合,那便剑碎天道!
  • 天武战纪

    天武战纪

    万物苍生,寰宇苍穹,一切存在皆有其存在的道理。我必挥剑斩狂澜,还道天地间!
  • 技术信息篇(农民十万个怎么做)

    技术信息篇(农民十万个怎么做)

    本书立足于最大限度满足农民朋友对提升科学文化素质和生产经营能力的现实需求,内容涵盖三个方面:一是如何运用种植、养殖等方面的农业科技知识;二是如何选择和利用各类教育培训渠道、形式等;三是如何获得和利用农业信息,做出正确决策, 降低农业经营成本与风险,提升农民对市场的应对能力。
  • 智力加油大派队(中小学生奥林匹克集训与选拔)

    智力加油大派队(中小学生奥林匹克集训与选拔)

    “中小学生奥林匹克集训与选拔”丛书旨在通过向青少年提供集知识性和趣味性于一体的科学文化知识,激发他们学习科学和热爱科学的积极性,引导他们拓宽视野,不断创新,最终达到提升综合性素质的目的。其中涉及到青少年必须知道的许多知识领域,具有很强的系统性、实用性和现代性,是青少年学习的最佳读本。
  • 孽闱

    孽闱

    人的一生究竟会爱几个人,是否会守着一生一世一个人,或许是伦理或许是悲伤,悲伤的爱情是否还是会让人飞蛾扑火,吴子清爱上了一个不该爱的人,而自从跟那个人的相遇开始,他似乎就没有打算放过她,南宫昱知道爱上她罪无可赦,那又如何即使下地狱,那也一起吧。民国年间,乱世情长,一辆花轿,三人悲伤。