Gammon reflected.
“I tell you what, send and ask her to come here
to-night; say it’s very important. We’ll
have them face to face—by jorrocks, we
will!”
“Polly mayn’t be ’ome before half-past
ten or eleven.”
“Never mind. I tell you we’ll have
them face to face. If it comes to that I’ll
pay for a cab for Mrs. Clover to go home in. Tell
her to be here at eight. Stop. You mustn’t
have the trouble; I can very well go round myself.
Yes, I’ll go myself and arrange it.”
“It may be a lie,” remarked Mrs. Bubb.
“So it may be, but somehow I don’t think
so. The rummiest thing that that never came into
my head! I shouldn’t be a bit surprised
if Clover ain’t living in Belgrave Square, or
some such place. Just the kind of thing that
happens with these mysterious johnnies. She’ll
have come across him somewhere, and he’s bribed
her to keep it dark—see? What a gooseberry
I was never to think of it! We’ll have
’em face to face!”
“Suppose Polly won’t?”
“Won’t? Gosh, but she shall!
If I have to carry her downstairs, she shall!
Think we’re going to let her keep a thing like
this to herself? You just wait and see.
Leave it to me, that’s all. Lucky there’s
only friends in the house. Polly, likes a row,
and, by jorrocks, she shall have one!”
POLLY’S DEFIANCE
Content with her four lodgers, Mrs. Bubb reserved
the rooms on the ground floor for her own use.
In that at the back she slept with the two younger
children; the other two had a little bed in the front
room, which during the daytime served as a parlour.
On occasions of ceremony—when the parlour
was needed in the evening—the children
slept in a bare attic next to that occupied by Moggie;
and this they looked upon as a treat, for it removed
them from their mother’s observation, and gave
opportunities for all sorts of adventurous pranks.
Thus were things arranged for to-night. Mrs.
Bubb swept and garnished her parlour for the becoming
reception of a visitor whom she could not but “look
up to.” Mrs. Clover’s origin was as
humble as her own, and her education not much better,
but natural gifts and worldly circumstances had set
a distance between them. Partly, perhaps, because
she was the widow of a police constable Mrs. Bubb
gave all due weight to social distinctions; she knew
her “place,” and was incapable of presuming.
With Polly Sparkes she did not hesitate to use freedom,
for Polly could not pretend to be on a social level
with her aunt, and as a young girl of unformed character
naturally owed deference to an experienced matron who
took a kindly interest in her.
There had been some question of inviting Mr. Sparkes,
but Mr. Gammon spoke against it. No; let Polly
have a fair chance, first of all, of unbosoming herself
before her aunt and her landlady. If she refused
to do so, why then other steps must be taken.
