Part 63 (1/2)

”You may be wise. Well, come down to my part of the world if you want economy--and to feel as though you were out of London. Good-bye, dear.”

Alex was surprised, and rather consoled, to hear Barbara alluding so lightly to the possibility of her seeking fresh quarters for herself.

Perhaps, after all, they all thought it would be the best thing for her to do. Perhaps there was no need to feel guilty and as though her intentions must be concealed.

But Alex, dreading blame or disapproval, or even a.s.surances that the scheme was unpractical and foolish, continued to conceal it.

She wrote and told Violet that she had decided that it would be too expensive to go abroad with Barbara. Might she stay on in Clevedon Square for a little while?

But she had secretly made up her mind to go and look for rooms or a boarding-house in Hampstead, as Barbara had suggested. As usual, it was only by chance that Alex realized the practical difficulties blocking her way.

She had now only five pounds.

On the following Sat.u.r.day afternoon she found her way out by omnibus to Hampstead. She alighted before the terminus was reached, from a nervous dread of being taken on too far, although the streets in which she found herself were not prepossessing.

For the first time Alex reflected that she had no definite idea as to where she wanted to go in her search for lodgings. She walked timidly along the road, which appeared to be interminably long and full of second-hand furniture shops. Bamboo tables, and armchairs with defective castors, were put out on the pavement in many instances, and there was often a small crowd in front of the window gazing at the cheaply-framed coloured supplements hung up within. The pavements and the road, even the tram-lines, swarmed with untidy, clamouring children.

Alex supposed that she must be in the region vaguely known to her as the slums.

Surely she could not live here?

Then the recollection of her solitary five pounds came to her with a pang of alarm.

Of course, she must live wherever she could do so most cheaply. She had no idea of what it would cost.

It was very hot, and the pavement began to burn her feet. She did not dare to leave the main road, fearing that she should never find her way to the 'bus route again, if once she left it, but she peeped down one or two side-streets. They seemed quieter than Malden Road, but the unpretentious little grey houses did not look as though lodgers were expected in any of them. Alex wondered desperately how she was to find out.

Presently she saw a policeman on the further side of the street.

She went up to him and asked:

”Can you tell me of anywhere near here where they let rooms--somewhere cheap?”

The man looked down at her white, exhausted face, and at the well-cut coat and skirt chosen by Barbara, which yet hung loosely and badly on her stooping, shrunken figure.

”Somebody's poor relation,” was his unspoken comment.

”Is it for yourself, Miss? You'd hardly care to be in this neighbourhood, would you?”

”I want to be somewhere near Hampstead--and somewhere very, very cheap,”

Alex faltered, thinking of her five pounds, which lay at that moment in the purse she was clasping.

”Well, you'll find as cheap here as anywhere, if you don't mind the noise.”

”Oh, no,” said Alex--who had never slept within the sound of traffic--surprised.

”Then if I was you, Miss, I'd try No. 252 Malden Road--just beyond the _Gipsy Queen_, that is, or else two doors further up. I saw cards up in both windows with 'apartments' inside the last week.”

”Thank you,” said Alex.