Part 1 (1/2)
The Gay Adventure
by Richard Bird
CHAPTER I
THE IMPOVERISHED HERO AND THE SURPassING DAMSEL
Mr Lionel Mortientleman of few intentions and no private ing manners, he was the type of s His natural gaiety and address were es of acquaintanceshi+p, but subsequent s were doomed to end in disillusion His cheerful outlook on life would be as much to your taste as ever; but the want of a definite aim and an obvious inability to convert his talents into cashfellow, of course, but unpracticalthe kind ofmothers
He lived in two rooms in an obscure street off the Strand, and at the time e make his acquaintance he has just finished a meal that stamps the lower h tea
For the benefit of gastronos, a loaf of bread, some butter of repellent aspect, and strawberry jahted his pipe and seated hi as can be enjoyable in a London back street He has not emitted three puffs of smoke before a tap at the door heralds the entrance of his landlady
Mrs Barker, a wo presence and dressed in rusty black, came into the room She did not utter a word, not even the conventional res would soon begin to draw in now With a funereal but businesslike dean to re vent to a rasping cough or a nant sniff Of her presence Lionel see with his back to the door, gazing with apparent interest into the street This, perhaps, was curious, for the street was but a lane with little traffic and no features worthy of note Nor was the building opposite calculated to inspire thelerelieved the monotony, usually so painful to the artist or the adventurer And yet Lionel puffed at his pipe, gazing silently in front of him as if at a masterpiece by Whistler
When the landlady had transferred the tea-things to a tray, shaken the crurate and folded it, she nerved herself for a direct attack Placing her ar truculent defiance or a pleasurable sense of injustice--she pronounced her lodger's name Lionel started, as if made aware of her presence for the first time He took his pipe from his , Mrs Barker,” he said with careful politeness ”A fine night, is it not?”
She assented with an ill grace Without giving her time to add to her appreciation, Lionel continued in suave but enthusiastic tones:
”Obligethe manner in which the sun strikes the opposite wall Notice the sharp outline of that chiainst the sky Re--a true secession curve of which the ain, the background! That dull gray monotone----”
This rhapsody was interrupted by Mrs Barker, whose artistic education had consisted in a course of free-hand drawing in a board school and a study of the colored plates issued by the Christazines It was hardly to be expected that she should wax enthusiastic over the warehouse wall
”It's no good torkin, Mr Mortimer,” she said; ”I want my rent”
”But how reasonable!” returned Lionel with increased brightness ”How old--with so additions for food, fire, etc----”
”One pahnd three sempence for this week,” snapped Mrs Barker After a pause she added constrainedly, ”If yer please”
”Why! you are even more reasonable than I expected,” cried Lionel ”If I please! How could aafter so polite a prelude? If I please! My rent, if I please, is one pound, three and sevenpence; and I must admit that the sum is paltry If I please to exist (and up to the present I have been delighted to fall in with the schemes of Providence) I can do so for sos a week It includes,” he added hopefully, ”the washi+ng?”
She nodded grimly and stretched out her hand Lionel, with an easy smile, waved her to the door
”To-ret to say that my funds do not amount to the necessary sum To-morrow I make no doubt that----”
Mrs Barker interrupted with brisk invective It appeared that Lionel was several weeks already in arrears She, it see her bread by the sweat of her brow, and she would not be put upon The position had become intolerable: either he
”Let us consider the state of affairs,” said Lionel, unruffled ”You, it appears, need your ainsay the moral claim You have attended to my simple wants in a ht in gold (after the pleasing custom in the East) had I the precious ore But at the moment my capital”--he searched his pockets--”amounts to sixpence ha'penny; hence the deplorable _impasse_ My profession holds out no prospect of i and editors slow to recognize merit I have pawned such of my wardrobe as is not necessary to support the illusion of an independent gentleest as a solution of our difficulties? It is repugnant to both of us that I should live on your charity I aht idea”
Unluckily the landlady was not an i, save that Lionel should pay his rent or leave Themoney was left entirely to him, but the necessity was insisted on in forcible terhtfully ”Well, I can not bla schemes, Mrs Barker, I must rely on myself But rest assured that you shall be paid What! I a and a light hand with the brush, will pass muster; we are in London, the richest city in the world I will go out and look for a fairy Godmother”