The Lodger Read Online Free Page B

key - a very nice little
key. The people who lived here before had a new kind of lock put on
to the door." She went over, and throwing the door open, showed him
that a round disk had been fitted above the old keyhole.
      He nodded his head, and then, after standing silent
a little, as if absorbed in thought, "Forty-two shillings a week?
Yes, that will suit me perfectly. And I'll begin now by paying my
first month's rent in advance. Now, four times forty-two shillings
is" - he jerked his head back and stared at his new landlady; for
the first time he smiled, a queer, wry smile - "why, just eight
pounds eight shillings, Mrs. Bunting!"
      He thrust his hand through into an inner pocket of
his long cape-like coat and took out a handful of sovereigns. Then
he began putting these down in a row on the bare wooden table which
stood in the centre of the room. "Here's five - six - seven - eight
- nine - ten pounds. You'd better keep the odd change, Mrs.
Bunting, for I shall want you to do some shopping for me to-morrow
morning. I met with a misfortune to-day." But the new lodger did
not speak as if his misfortune, whatever it was, weighed on his
spirits.
      "Indeed, sir. I'm sorry to hear that." Mrs.
Bunting's heart was going thump - thump - thump. She felt
extraordinarily moved, dizzy with relief and joy.
      "Yes, a very great misfortune! I lost my luggage,
the few things I managed to bring away with me." His voice dropped
suddenly. "I shouldn't have said that," he muttered. "I was a fool
to say that!" Then, more loudly, "Someone said to me, 'You can't go
into a lodging-house without any luggage. They wouldn't take you
in.' But you have taken me in, Mrs. Bunting, and I'm grateful for -
for the kind way you have met me - " He looked at her feelingly,
appealingly, and Mrs. Bunting was touched. She was beginning to
feel very kindly towards her new lodger.
      "I hope I know a gentleman when I see one," she
said, with a break in her staid voice,
      "I shall have to see about getting some clothes
to-morrow, Mrs. Bunting." Again he looked at her appealingly.
      "I expect you'd like to wash your hands now, sir.
And would you tell me what you'd like for supper? We haven't much
in the house."
      "Oh, anything'll do," he said hastily. "I don't want
you to go out for me. It's a cold, foggy, wet night, Mrs. Bunting.
If you have a little bread-and-butter and a cup of milk I shall be
quite satisfied."
      "I have a nice sausage," she said hesitatingly.
      It was a very nice sausage, and she had bought it
that same morning for Bunting's supper; as to herself, she had been
going to content herself with a little bread and cheese. But now -
wonderful, almost, intoxicating thought - she could send Bunting
out to get anything they both liked. The ten sovereigns lay in her
hand full of comfort and good cheer.
      "A sausage? No, I fear that will hardly do. I never
touch flesh meat," he said; "it is a long, long time since I tasted
a sausage, Mrs. Bunting."
      "Is it indeed, sir?" She hesitated a moment, then
asked stiffly, "And will you be requiring any beer, or wine,
sir?"
      A strange, wild look of lowering wrath suddenly
filled Mr. Sleuth's pale face.
      "Certainly not. I thought I had made that quite
clear, Mrs. Bunting. I had hoped to hear that you were an abstainer
- "
      "So I am, sir, lifelong. And so's Bunting been since
we married." She might have said, had she been a woman given to
make such confidences, that she had made Buntlng abstain very early
in their acquaintance. That he had given in about that had been the
thing that first made her believe, that he was sincere in all the
nonsense that he talked to her, in those far-away days of his
courting. Glad she was now that he had taken the pledge as a
younger man; hut for that nothing would have kept him from the
drink during the bad times they had gone through.
      And then, going downstairs, she showed Mr. Sleuth
the nice bedroom which opened out of the drawing-room.