Part 15 (1/2)
”I beg your pardon,” remarked Miss Striem severely.
”They're bad too. I'm not going to eat them.”
”You'll have to pay for them juth the thame.”
”What?” cried Mavis.
”If you order, you pay. Ith a rule in the houth,” said Miss Striem, as if the matter were forthwith dismissed from her mind.
”To sell girls bad food?” asked Mavis.
”I cannot discuth the matter; the thum due will be deducted from your wageth.”
Mavis's blood was up. Her wage was small enough without having anything deducted for food she could not eat.
”I shall go to the management,” she remarked.
”You'll what?”
”Go to the management. I'm not going to be cheated like that.”
”You call me a cheat?” screamed the little woman, as she rose to her feet.
Mavis was, for the moment, taken aback by Miss Striem's vehemence. The girl next to her whispered, ”Go it,” under her breath.
”You call me a cheat?” repeated Miss Striem.
”I shall say what I have to say to the management,” replied Mavis coolly.
”And I'll thay what I have to thay; and you'll find out who is believed in a way you won't like.”
”I shall prove my case,” retorted Mavis, as she grabbed the ham paste and the tin of sardines.
Miss Striem sat down. A giggle ran round the table.
”Can you tell me where the sitting-room is, please?” Mavis asked of the girl next to her.
”What?” replied the girl whom she had spoked to.
Mavis repeated her question.
”There's no such thing; there's only this place open at meal times and your bedroom.”
”Thanks; I'll go there. Good night.”
Mavis, carrying her ham paste and sardines, walked the evil-smelling pa.s.sage and up the stairs to her room. Once outside the supper-room, she repented of having had words with Miss Striem, who was, doubtless, a person of authority; but it was done now, and Mavis reflected how she had justice and evidence on her side. The bedroom was empty. Mavis placed the ham paste and sardines on her was.h.i.+ng-stand; she then took advantage of the absence of the other girls to undress and get into bed. She fell into a heavy slumber, which gave place to a state of dreamy wakefulness, during which she became conscious of others being in the room; of hearing herself discussed; of a sudden commotion in the apartment. A sequence of curious noises thoroughly awoke her. The unaccustomed sight of three other girls in the room in which she slept caused her to sit bolt upright. The girl, Miss Impett, to whom she had already spoken, was sitting on her bed, yawning as she pulled off her stockings. Another, a fine, queenly-looking girl, in evening dress, was sitting on a chair with her hands pressed to her stomach; her eyes were rolling as if she were in pain. The third girl, also in evening dress, but not so handsome as the sufferer, was whispering consoling words.
”Is she ill?” asked Mavis.
”It's the indigestion,” replied the last girl Mavis had noticed.