The Project Gutenberg EBook of Establishing Relations, by W.W. Jacobs

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Title: Establishing Relations
Odd Craft, Part 7.

Author: W.W. Jacobs

Release Date: April 29, 2004 [EBook #12207]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ESTABLISHING RELATIONS ***

Produced by David Widger

ODD CRAFT

By W.W. Jacobs

ESTABLISHING RELATIONS

Mr. Richard Catesby, second officer of the ss. _Wizard_, emerged from the
dock-gates in high good-humour to spend an evening ashore. The bustle of
the day had departed, and the inhabitants of Wapping, in search of
coolness and fresh air, were sitting at open doors and windows indulging
in general conversation with any-body within earshot.

[Illustration: "Mr. Richard Catesby, second officer of the ss. _Wizard_,
emerged from the dock-gates in high good-humour."]

Mr. Catesby, turning into Bashford's Lane, lost in a moment all this life
and colour. The hum of distant voices certainly reached there, but that
was all, for Bashford's Lane, a retiring thoroughfare facing a blank dock
wall, capped here and there by towering spars, set an example of
gentility which neighbouring streets had long ago decided crossly was
impossible for ordinary people to follow. Its neatly grained shutters,
fastened back by the sides of the windows, gave a pleasing idea of
uniformity, while its white steps and polished brass knockers were
suggestive of almost a Dutch cleanliness.

Mr. Catesby, strolling comfortably along, stopped suddenly for another
look at a girl who was standing in the ground-floor window of No. 5. He
went on a few paces and then walked back slowly, trying to look as though
he had forgotten something. The girl was still there, and met his ardent
glances unmoved: a fine girl, with large, dark eyes, and a complexion
which was the subject of much scandalous discussion among neighbouring
matrons.

"It must be something wrong with the glass, or else it's the bad light,"
said Mr. Catesby to himself; "no girl is so beautiful as that."

He went by again to make sure. The object of his solicitude was still
there and apparently unconscious of his existence. He pa