Part 15 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIX.

He let her go, somewhat bewildered, and not understanding herself or him, nor caring to understand, only happy, dangerously happy. The train bore her through an enchanted region of brightness and summer, and, although the power of thought was for the moment suspended, she was conscious of this, and her own delight was like the unreasoning pleasure of earth when the sun is upon it.

There was no carriage to meet her at the station, and she set off to walk home. It was the first time she had been alone on foot in the squalid disorderly streets of that dingy place, and her way, which she was not quite sure of, took her through some of the worst of them. They were filled with loud-laughing uncleanly women, and skulking hang-dog- looking men, and the grime-clogged atmosphere was heavy with foul odours; but she noticed nothing of this. The golden glow the sun made in his efforts to s.h.i.+ne through the clouds of smoke might have been a visible expression of her own ecstatic feeling, and she would have thought so at any other time, but now she never saw it.

In a somewhat open and more lonely part of the road she met a tramp, a great rude, hulking, common fellow, with fine blue eyes. He stopped in the middle of the road and stared at Ideala as she came up to him, walking, as usual, with a slight undulating movement that made you think of a yacht in a breeze, her face up-raised and her lips parted.

He took off his cap as she approached. The gesture attracted her attention, and, thinking he wanted to beg or ask some question, she stopped and looked at him inquiringly.

”Well, you _are_ a nice lady!” he exclaimed.

He hadn't the gift of language, but she saw the soul of a man in his eyes, and she understood him.

”Thank you,” she answered, and pa.s.sed on, unsurprised.

In the next street a breathless creature came running after her, a tawdry, painted, dishevelled girl. She stopped Ideala and stood panting, with hot dry lips, and eyes full of animal suffering. Her clothes exhaled the smell of some vile scent that was overpowering.

Involuntarily Ideala shrank from her, and all the joy left her face.

”I've run”--the girl gasped--”such a way--they said you'd gone this road. I've waited about all day to catch you. Come, for G.o.d's sake!”

”But where?”

”There's a girl dying”--and she clutched Ideala's arm, trying to drag her along with her--”or she would die and have done with it, but she can't till she's seen you. She've something on her mind--something to tell you. Come, my lady, come, for the love of the Lord and the Blessed Virgin. No harm'll happen to you.” Ideala made a gesture. ”Show me the way,” she said. ”But you don't seem able to walk. There's an empty cab coming. Get in and tell the man where to drive to.”

They stopped at a row of many-storeyed houses in a low by-street. A stout elderly woman with an evil countenance met them at the door. She began some speech in a cringing tone to Ideala, but the tawdry girl pushed her aside rudely.

”Hold your jaw, and get out of the way,” she said. ”I'll show the lady up.”

The woman muttered something which Ideala fortunately did not hear, and let them pa.s.s. They went upstairs to the very top of the house, and entered a low room, furnished with a broken chair and a small bed only.

On the bed lay a girl, who, in spite of disease and approaching death, looked not more than twenty, and was probably two years younger. She turned her haggard face to the door as it opened, and a gleam of satisfaction caused her eyes to dilate when she saw Ideala. They were large dark eyes, but her face was so distorted with suffering and discoloured by disease, it was impossible to imagine what it once had been.

”Here she is, Polly,” said the Tawdry One, triumphantly. ”I said I'd bring her, now didn't I?”

Ideala knelt down by the bed.

”My! but you're a game un!” said the Tawdry One, admiringly. ”You ain't afraid of catching nothing! Now, I'd have asked what was up before I'd have done that; and I wouldn't touch her with the tongs, nor stay in the room with her was it ever so. You just holler when you want me and I'll come back.” And so saying she left them.

”You are not afraid to touch me--you don't mind?” said the dying girl when Ideala had taken off her gloves, and knelt, holding her hands.

”Afraid? Mind?” Ideala whispered, her eyes full of pity. ”I only wish you would let me do something for you.”

At that moment they were startled by an uproar downstairs. A man and woman were quarrelling at the top of their voices. At first only their tones were audible, but these grew more distinct, and in a few seconds Ideala could hear what was said, and it was evident that the combatants were approaching.

”I tell you the lady's all right,” the woman Ideala had seen downstairs was heard to shriek, with sundry vile epithets. ”Polly's dying, and she've come to visit her.”

”Seein' 's believin',” the man rejoined, doggedly. ”Just show me the lady and shut up, you foul-mouthed devil you.”