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"Ah, you don't know my Rosie," said Mrs. Leadbatter, shaking her head with sceptical pride. "You mustn't judge by other gels the way that gel picks up things is well, I'll just tell you what 'er school-teacher, Miss Whiteman said. She says " "My good lady," interrupted Lancelot, "I practised six hours a day myself." "Yes, but it don't come so natural to a man," said Mrs. Leadbatter, unshaken.
"Not another stroke of work do you do in my house, Mary Ann!" Then there was silence, save for the thumping of his own heart. What had happened? He heard Mrs. Leadbatter mounting the kitchen stairs, wheezing and grumbling, "Well, of all the sly little things!" Mary Ann had been discovered. His blood ran cold at the thought. The silly creature had been unable to keep the secret.
Sometimes Lancelot's bell rang up Mrs. Leadbatter herself, but far more often merely Mary Ann. The first time Lancelot saw Mary Ann she was cleaning the steps. He avoided treading upon her, being kind to animals. For the moment she was merely a quadruped, whose head was never lifted to the stars. Her faded print dress showed like the quivering hide of some crouching animal.
It only shows 'ow right I was to send for my Rosie, though quite the lady, and where will you find a nattier nursemaid in all Bayswater?" "Nowhere," assented Lancelot automatically. "Oh, I didn't know you'd noticed her running in to see 'er pore old mother of a Sunday arternoon," said Mrs. Leadbatter, highly gratified.
"I can offer you lots of tobacco I'm sorry I've got no cigars. Wait till you see Mrs. Leadbatter my landlady then you'll talk about houris. Poverty may not be a crime, but it seems to make people awful bores. Wonder if it'll have that effect on me? Ach Himmel! how that woman bores me.
"Wh-a-t!" he stammered. "Mary Ann leaving you?" "Well, you don't suppose," replied Mrs. Leadbatter angrily, "as I can keep a gel in my kitchen as is a-goin' to 'ave 'er own nors-end-kerridge!" "Her own horse and carriage!" repeated Lancelot, utterly dazed. "What ever are you talking about?" "Well there's the letter!" exclaimed Mrs. Leadbatter indignantly. "See for yourself if you don't believe me.
Presently there was another knock. Lancelot growled, half prepared to renew the battle, and to give Mrs. Leadbatter a piece of his mind on the subject. But it was merely Mary Ann. Shaken in his routine, he looked on steadily while Mary Ann drew on her gloves; and this in turn confused Mary Ann. Her hand trembled. "Let me help you," he said.
"Ah, you don't know my Rosie," said Mrs. Leadbatter, shaking her head with sceptical pride. "You mustn't judge by other gels the way that gel picks up things is well, I'll just tell you what 'er school-teacher, Miss Whiteman, said. She says " "My good lady," interrupted Lancelot, "I practised six hours a day myself." "Yes, but it don't come so natural to a man," said Mrs. Leadbatter, unshaken.
Reviewing the bargain, when Mrs. Leadbatter was gone, Lancelot did not think it at all bad for him. "Use of the piano. Gas," he murmured, with a pathetic smile, recalling the advertisements he had read before lighting on Mrs. Leadbatter's. "And five shillings a week it's a considerable relief! There's no loss of dignity either for nobody will know. But I wonder what the governor would have said!"
Leadbatter was a garrulous body, who suffered from the delusion that small-talk is a form of politeness, and that her conversation was part of the "all inclusive" her lodgers stipulated for.
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