"Stuffiness," he said. "I know; I have been there. Do you manage to keep
your health? I have noticed that you are rather pale."
"Oh, I am quite well and strong," she said, with a laugh. "I always walk
there and back, unless it rains very hard; and I take long walks,
sometimes in the early morning; sometimes at night, when it is fine. I
think London is wonderful in the moonlight. You know the view from
Westminster Bridge?"
"Yes," he said. "And you are always alone?"
"Why, yes," she assented. "I know no one in London, excepting yourself;
for Mr. Bishop lives in the country, in Sussex, and we work by
correspondence. Oh, yes; I am lonely sometimes," she added, as if he had
asked a question. "But then, I am very busy. I am very much interested
in what I am doing, and besides--well, when one is poor, after 'seeing
better days'"--she laughed apologetically--"it is, perhaps, better--one
can bear it better--to be alone."
He gave another nod which indicated his complete comprehension.
"And there is so much to interest one in the people one sees and lives
amongst. Now here, in Brown's Buildings, in The Jail, one finds quite a
large amount of amusement in--well, in noticing one's neighbours and
fitting a history to them. There is the young girl who lives on your
floor; the girl who, you told me, is in the chorus of the 'Baby Queen';
I am sure she is dreaming of, and looking forward to, the time when she
will be--principal lady, don't you call it?--and there is the lady who
lives opposite her; the old lady who always wears a black silk dress, a
satin cloak, and a crape bonnet. I am sure she has been 'somebody' in
her time. I met her one day on the stairs, carrying a milk-can. I should
have been cowardly enough to put it under my jacket or behind me; but
she held it out in front of her and stared at me with haughty defiance.
And there is my opposite neighbour"--she jerked her head, with a pretty,
graceful motion, towards the door fronting her own--"that handsome,
good-looking young fellow who comes up the steps two at a time and bangs
his door after him, as if he were entering a mansion."
"I know the young man you mean," said Mr. Clendon. "Have you fitted a
history to him?"
"Well, no; he puzzles me rather. I am sure he is a gentleman, and, of
course, he must be poor, or he would not be here. Sometimes I think he
is a clerk looking for a situation; but he has not the appearance of a
clerk, has he? He looks more like an--an engineer; but then, his hands
are always clean. He is well groomed, though his clothes are old."