The Complete Works of Frances Hodgson Burnett. Frances Hodgson Burnett

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ a cellar and returned carrying a small sack of coal over her shoulders.

      “Bought sack an’ all,” she said elatedly. “A sack’s a good thing to ‘ave.”

      “Let me carry it for you,” said Antony Dart.

      “Spile yer coat,” with her sidelong upward glance.

      “I don’t care,” he answered. “I don’t care a damn.”

      The final expletive was totally unnecessary, but it meant a thing he did not say. Whatsoever was thrusting him this way and that, speaking through his speech, leading him to do things he had not dreamed of doing, should have its will with him. He had been fastened to the skirts of this beggar imp and he would go on to the end and do what was to be done this day. It was part of the dream.

      The sack of coal was over his shoulder when they turned into Apple Blossom Court. It would have been a black hole on a sunny day, and now it was like Hades, lit grimly by a gas-jet or two, small and flickering, with the orange haze about them. Filthy, flagging, murky doorways, broken steps and broken windows stuffed with rags, and the smell of the sewers let loose had Apple Blossom Court.

      Glad, with the wealth of the pork and ham shop and other riches in her arms, entered a repellent doorway in a spirit of great good cheer and Dart followed her. Past a room where a drunken woman lay sleeping with her head on a table, a child pulling at her dress and crying, up a stairway with broken balusters and breaking steps, through a landing, upstairs again, and up still farther until they reached the top. Glad stopped before a door and shook the handle, crying out:

      “‘S only me, Polly. You can open it.” She added to Dart in an undertone: “She ‘as to keep it locked. No knowin’ who’d want to get in. Polly,” shaking the door-handle again, “Polly ‘s only me.”

      The door opened slowly. On the other side of it stood a girl with a dimpled round face which was quite pale; under one of her childishly vacant blue eyes was a discoloration, and her curly fair hair was tucked up on the top of her head in a knot. As she took in the fact of Antony Dart’s presence her chin began to quiver.

      “I ain’t fit to—to see no one,” she stammered pitifully. “Why did you, Glad—why did you?”

      “Ain’t no ‘arm in ‘im,” said Glad. “‘E’s one o’ the friendly ones. ‘E give me a suvrink. Look wot I’ve got,” hopping about as she showed her parcels.

      “You need not be afraid of me,” Antony Dart said. He paused a second, staring at her, and suddenly added, “Poor little wretch!”

      Her look was so scared and uncertain a thing that he walked away from her and threw the sack of coal on the hearth. A small grate with broken bars hung loosely in the fireplace, a battered tin kettle tilted drunkenly near it. A mattress, from the holes in whose ticking straw bulged, lay on the floor in a corner, with some old sacks thrown over it. Glad had, without doubt, borrowed her shoulder covering from the collection. The garret was as cold as the grave, and almost as dark; the fog hung in it thickly. There were crevices enough through which it could penetrate.

      Antony Dart knelt down on the hearth and drew matches from his pocket.

      “We ought to have brought some paper,” he said.

      Glad ran forward.

      “Wot a gent ye are!” she cried. “Y’ ain’t never goin’ to light it?”

      “Yes.”

      She ran back to the rickety table and collected the scraps of paper which had held her purchases. They were small, but useful.

      “That wot was round the sausage an’ the puddin’s greasy,” she exulted.

      Polly hung over the table and trembled at the sight of meat and bread. Plainly, she did not understand what was happening. The greased paper set light to the wood, and the wood to the coal. All three flared and blazed with a sound of cheerful crackling. The blaze threw out its glow as finely as if it had been set alight to warm a better place. The wonder of a fire is like the wonder of a soul. This one changed the murk and gloom to brightness, and the deadly damp and cold to warmth. It drew the girl Polly from the table despite her fears. She turned involuntarily, made two steps toward it, and stood gazing while its light played on her face. Glad whirled and ran to the hearth.

      “Ye’ve put on a lot,” she cried; “but, oh, my Gawd, don’t it warm yer! Come on, Polly—come on.”

      She dragged out a wooden stool, an empty soap-box, and bundled the sacks into a heap to be sat upon. She swept the things from the table and set them in their paper wrappings on the floor.

      “Let’s all sit down close to it—close,” she said, “an’ get warm an’ eat, an’ eat.”

      She was the leaven which leavened the lump of their humanity. What this leaven is—who has found out? But she—little rat of the gutter—was formed of it, and her mere pure animal joy in the temporary animal comfort of the moment stirred and uplifted them from their depths.

III

      They drew near and sat upon the substitutes for seats in a circle—and the fire threw up flame and made a glow in the fog hanging in the black hole of a room.

      It was Glad who set the battered kettle on and when it boiled made tea. The other two watched her, being under her spell. She handed out slices of bread and sausage and pudding on bits of paper. Polly fed with tremulous haste; Glad herself with rejoicing and exulting in flavors. Antony Dart ate bread and meat as he had eaten the bread and dripping at the stall—accepting his normal hunger as part of the dream.

      Suddenly Glad paused in the midst of a huge bite.

      “Mister,” she said, “p’raps that cove’s waitin’ fer yer. Let’s ‘ave ‘im in. I’ll go and fetch ‘im.”

      She was getting up, but Dart was on his feet first.

      “I must go,” he said. “He is expecting me and—”

      “Aw,” said Glad, “lemme go along o’ yer, mister—jest to show there’s no ill feelin’.”

      “Very well,” he answered.

      It was she who led, and he who followed. At the door she stopped and looked round with a grin.

      “Keep up the fire, Polly,” she threw back. “Ain’t it warm and cheerful? It’ll do the cove good to see it.”

      She led the way down the black, unsafe stairway. She always led.

      Outside the fog had thickened again, but she went through it as if she could see her way.

      At the entrance to the court the thief was standing, leaning against the wall with fevered, unhopeful waiting in his eyes. He moved miserably when he saw the girl, and she called out to reassure him.

      “I ain’t up to no ‘arm,” she said; “I on’y come with the gent.”

      Antony Dart spoke to him.

      “Did you get food?”

СКАЧАТЬ