FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120  
121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>   >|  
ing your blouse, that these travellers in trains would never hear your name or know who you were. As for a bath--but then the great, magnificent advantage of living at Mrs. McFarrell's was the bathroom. It was dark and small and smelled of the black beetles who lived happily around the hot-water pipes. You were not expected to take more than one bath a week, and for that one bath towel was provided free. "Oh, I thought you'd _had_ your bath this week!" was the answer Win got on her second night, when mildly asking for a towel which had disappeared. But if you were silly enough to pay thirty cents extra for putting water on your body every day, you could do so. And, anyhow a bathroom was a splendid advertisement. One lodger told another: "The use of the bathroom is thrown in." That night, when Win had bathed and laid herself carefully down in the narrow bed which shook and groaned as if suffering from palsy, it seemed more impossible than ever to go to sleep. Each new train that rumbled by was a giant, homing bee, her brain the hive for which it aimed. Her hot head was crowded with thoughts, disturbing, fighting, struggling thoughts, yet the giant bee pushed the throng ruthlessly aside and darted in. Each time it seemed impossible to bear it again. She felt as if she had caterpillars in her spine and ants on her nerves. Win thought about the superintendent, Mr. Meggison, and wondered again and again whether she would be discharged or whether he had merely "taken a fancy" to her looks and wished to see if she were flirtatiously inclined. She knew now, from Sadie, that Meggison's desire was to be a "gay dog," though his courage did not always march with his ambition. The red-haired girl, Sadie supposed, had perhaps come to the Hands armed with an introduction from some "lady friend." This theory would account for Meggison's mysterious murmur of, "That's different." What should she--Win--do if Father invited her to dine with him, as it seemed he did invite some of the girls? Sadie said that if such a thing happened to her she would accept, because she wasn't afraid of Father. She "could scare him more than he could scare her," and an extra hand might "get the push" if she refused a civil invitation. With Mr. Croft, "Saint Peter's Understudy," it was more dangerous. You had to beware of him. If you were a "looker," like Win, the best thing that could happen to you was never to come within eyeshot of Henry Crof
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120  
121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

bathroom

 

Meggison

 

Father

 
thought
 
thoughts
 

impossible

 
desire
 

dangerous

 

wished

 

beware


Understudy
 

inclined

 

flirtatiously

 

looker

 

nerves

 
caterpillars
 

eyeshot

 

happen

 

discharged

 
superintendent

wondered

 
murmur
 

mysterious

 

theory

 

account

 

invite

 

happened

 
invited
 

accept

 

friend


ambition

 

haired

 

courage

 

refused

 

supposed

 

introduction

 

afraid

 

invitation

 

provided

 

happily


expected

 

answer

 

thirty

 

mildly

 

disappeared

 

beetles

 
trains
 

blouse

 

travellers

 

magnificent