第29章

Pinkey's father was a silent,characterless man,taking the lead from his wife with admirable docility,and asking nothing from fortune but regular work and time to read the newspaper.He had worked for the same firm since he was a boy,disliking change;but since his second marriage he had been dragged from one house to another.Sometimes he went home to the wrong place,forgetting that they had moved.Every week he planned another short cut to Grimshaw's works,which landed him there half an hour late.

Her mother had died of consumption when Pinkey was eleven,and two years later her father had married his housekeeper.She proved to be a shiftless slattern,never dressed,never tidy,and selfish to the core under the cloak of a good-natured smile.She was always resting from the fatigue of imaginary labours,and her house was a pigsty.Nothing was in its place,and nothing could be found when it was wanted.This,she always explained with a placid smile,was owing to the fact that they were busy looking for a house where they could settle down.

The burden of moving fell on Pinkey,for her father had never lost a day at Grimshaw's in his life;and after Mrs Partridge had hindered for half an hour by getting in the way and mislaying everything,Pinkey usually begged her in desperation to go and wait for the furniture in the new house.

Meanwhile,lower down the street,Chook was slowly working his way from house to house,hawking a load of vegetables.In the distance he remarked the load of furniture,and resolved to call before a rival could step in and get their custom.As he praised the quality of the peas to a customer,he found time to observe that the unloading went on very slowly.

The vanman stood on the cart and slid the articles on to the shoulders of a girl,who staggered across the pavement under a load twice her size.

It looked like an ant carrying a beetle.Five minutes later Chook stood at the door and rapped with his knuckles.

"Any vegetables to-day,lydy?"he inquired,in his nasal,professional sing-song.

The answer to his question was Pinkey,dishevelled,sweating in beads,covered with dust,her sleeves tucked up to the elbows,showing two arms as thick as pipe-stems.She flushed pink under the sweat and grime,feeling for her apron to wipe her face.They had not seen each other since the fight,for in a sudden revulsion of feeling Pinkey had decided that Chook was too handy with his fists to make a desirable bloke,and a change of address on the following Monday had enabled her to give him the slip easily.And after waiting at street corners till he was tired,Chook had returned to his old love,the two-up school.Pinkey broke the silence with a question that was furthest from her thoughts.

"'Ow are yez sellin'yer peas?"

Chook dropped his basket and roared with laughter.

"If yer only come ter poke borak,yer better go,"cried Pinkey,with an angry flush.

Chook sobered instantly.

"No 'arm meant,"he said,quite humbly,"but yer gimme the knock-out every time I see yer.But wot are yez doin'?"he asked.

"We're movin',"said Pinkey,with an important air.

"Oh,are yez?"said Chook,looking round with interest."Yous an'old Jimmy there?"He nodded familiarly to the vanman,who was filling his pipe."Well,yer must excuse me,but I'm on in this act.""Wotcher mean?"said Pinkey,looking innocent,but she flushed with pleasure.

"Nuthin',"said Chook,seizing the leg of a table;"but wait till I put the nosebag on the moke.""Whose cart is it?"inquired Pinkey.

"Jack Ryan's,"answered Chook;"'e's bin shickered since last We'n'sday,an'I'm takin'it round fer 'is missis an'the kids."Mrs Partridge received Chook very graciously when she learned that he was a friend of Pinkey's and had offered to help in passing.She had been reading a penny novelette under great difficulties,and furtively eating some slices of bread-and-butter which she had thoughtfully put in her pocket.But now she perked up under the eyes of this vigorous young man,and even attempted to help by carrying small objects round the room and then putting them back where she found them.In an hour the van was empty,and Jimmy was told to call next week for his money.It was well into the afternoon when Chook resumed his hawking with the cart and then only because Pinkey resolutely pushed him out of the door.

Chook's previous love-affairs had all been conducted in the open air.

Following the law of Cardigan Street,he met the girl at the street corner and spent the night in the park or the dance-room.Rarely,if she forgot the appointment,he would saunter past the house,and whistle till she came out.What passed within the house was no concern of his.Parents were his natural enemies,who regarded him with the eyes of a butcher watching a hungry dog.But his affair with Pinkey had been full of surprises,and this was not the least,that chance had given him an informal introduction to Pinkey's stepmother and the furniture.

He had called again with vegetables,and when he adroitly remarked that no one would have taken Mrs Partridge to be old enough to be the mother of Pinkey,she had spent a delightful hour leaning against the doorpost telling him how she came to marry Partridge,and the incredible number of offers she had refused in her time.Charmed with his wit and sympathy,she forgot what she was saying,and invited him to tea on the following Sunday.Chook was staggered.He knew this was the custom of the law-abiding,who nodded to the police and went to church on Sunday.But here was the fox receiving a pressing invitation from the lamb.He decided to talk the matter over with Pinkey.But when he told her of the invitation,she flushed crimson.

"She asked yous to tea,did she?The old devil!""W'y,"said Chook mortified.

"W'y?'Cause she knows father 'ud kill yer,if yer put yer nose inside the door.""Oh!would 'e?"cried Chook,bristling.