Chapter 20 A bright morning, and everybody and everything in South London singing cheerfully. Elderly birds in cages, cocking one eye and looking up at the sky, on being hung outside windows straightway began an air of which they had nearly forgotten the tune; the people hurrying along the pavements hummed or whistled; shopkeepers chatted…
Chapter 19 It was certainly not inclination that took Mord Em’ly by the ear that evening, and led her slowly but determinedly to Greenwich. Fear was mainly responsible, aided, perhaps, by a reckless spirit of fatalism. The little woman had kissed Henry Barden’s letter a good many times before she had started out—had pinned it…
Chapter 18 Mord Em’ly paid another visit to the registry office, where her name and a shilling had been recorded with some desire to see if the unexpected happened. Her vague hopes were that she might obtain an engagement at some distant dining-rooms, where she could remain in hiding until Wetherell had forgotten her; that…
Chapter 17 The sergeant’s wife declared herself sorry, but her mother was coming the next day, and the spare room had to be at once prepared for that lady’s reception. The sergeant’s wife wished Mord Em’ly could have stayed on, and the infant Highlander was also full of regret, but it could not be helped….
Chapter 16 Mord Em’ly said good-bye to Mitchell’s Dining-Rooms, and Mrs. Mitchell kissed her, cried a good deal, and gave to her ten shillings over and above her wages, a number of ham sandwiches, and a bunch of coral that originally came (Mrs. Mitchell said) from goodness only knew where. Miss Mitchell so far unbent…
Chapter 15 To Mord Em’ly’s great relief, her father did not appear at the cemetery, and as, for some days after this, she heard nothing of him, she persuaded herself that he had disappeared. A letter came from Henry Barden, dated from Brindisi—a brief letter, which announced the arrival there of the P. & O….
Chapter 14 When, the next morning, a note arrived from Miss Gilliken announcing that the end had come, it was fortunate for Mord Em’ly that she had near her so excellent a woman as the proprietress of the dining-rooms. The imminence of a funeral gave to Mrs. Mitchell such enjoyment that those about her could…
Chapter 13 The little waitress at Mitchell’s dining-rooms was so much absorbed in thought during the day following the contest, that humorous customers, noting this, told her she was in love. To Miss Mitchell’s requests for an opinion as to the number of g’s in Reggie, she replied absently, and showed so little interest in…
Flops’s Gymnasium belonged to Shoreditch; the entrance was from Kingsland Road, where a passage led to the club, members of which were gentlemen interested in sport generally, and the racing of horses in particular. Flops’s nights occurred twice a month, and a good many patrons went into them for nothing, in spite of the announcement…
Chapter 11 Mord Em’ly gave so much satisfaction as a vegetable girl in the kitchen at the back of Mrs. Mitchell’s dining-rooms that in a few weeks she, to her great content, was promoted to the position of assistant waitress. Here her natural alertness made her useful; the work suited her, and the patrons, finding…