第49章

She had had no schooling and when she grew up it seemed a poor way to spend the time reading,when you might be talking.Somebody always told you what was in the newspapers,and if you wanted to know anything else,why,where was your tongue?She examined the paper again,but it conveyed no meaning to her anxious eyes.

And then in a flash she saw Miss Perkins in a new light,The woman's anxiety about her was a blind to save her money from dribbling out in petty loans.Mrs Yabsley,knowing that banks were only traps,still hid her money so carefully that no one could lay hands on it.So that was the root of her care for Mrs Yabsley's appearance.She held up the note,and regarded it with a grimly humorous smile.She knew the truth now,and felt no desire to read what was written there--some lie,she supposed--and dropped it on the floor.

Suddenly she felt old and lonely,and wrapping a shawl round her shoulders,went out to her seat on the veranda.It was near eleven,and the street was humming with life.The sober and thrifty were trudging home with their loads of provisions;gossips were gathered at intervals;sudden jests were bandied,conversations were shouted across the width of the street,for it was Saturday night,and innumerable pints of beer had put Cardigan Street in a good humour.The doors were opened,and the eye travelled straight into the front rooms lit with a kerosene lamp or a candle.Under the veranda at the corner the Push was gathered,the successors of Chook and Jonah,young and vicious,for the larrikin never grows old.

She looked on the familiar scenes that had been a part of her life since she could remember.The street was changed,she thought,for a new generation had arrived,scorning the old traditions.The terrace opposite,sinking in decay,had become a den of thieves,the scum of a city rookery.

She felt a stranger in her own street,and saw that her money had spoilt her relations with her neighbours.Once she could read them like a book,but these people came to her with lies and many inventions for the sake of a few miserable shillings.She wondered what the world was coming to.

She threw her thoughts into the past with an immense regret.A group on the kerbstone broke into song:

Now,honey,yo'stay in yo'own back yard,Doan min'what dem white chiles do;What show yo'suppose dey's a-gwine to gib A little black coon like yo'?

So stay on this side of the high boahd fence,An',honey,doan cry so hard;Go out an'a-play,jes'as much as yo'please,But stay in yo'own back yard.

The tune,with a taking lilt in it,made no impression on the old woman.

And she thought with regret that the old tunes had died out with the people who sang them.These people had lost the trick of enjoying themselves in a simple manner.Ah for the good old times,when the street was as good as a play,and the people drank and quarrelled and fought and sang without malice!A meaner race had come in their stead,with meaner habits and meaner vices.Her thoughts were interrupted by a tinkling bell,and a voice that cried:

"Peas an'pies,all 'ot!--all 'ot!"

It was the pieman,pushing a handcart.He went the length of the street,unnoticed.She thought of Joey,dead and gone these long years,with his shop on wheels and his air of prosperity.His widow lived on the rent of a terrace of houses,but his successor was as lean as a starved cat,for the people's tastes had changed,and the chipped-potato shop round the corner took all their money.She thought with pride of Joey and the famous wedding feast--the peas,the pies,the saveloys,the beer,the songs and laughter.Ah well,you could say what you liked,the good old times were gone for ever.Once the street was like a play,and now.Her thoughts were disturbed again by a terrific noise in the terrace opposite.

The door of a cottage flew open,and a woman ran screaming into the road,followed by her husband with a tomahawk.But as the door slammed behind him,he suddenly changed his mind and,turning back,hammered on the closed door with frantic rage,calling on someone within to come out and be killed.Then,as he grew tired of trying to get in,he remembered his wife,but she had disappeared.

The crowd gathered about,glad of a diversion,and the news travelled across the street to Mrs Yabsley on her veranda.Doughy the baker,stepping down unexpectedly from the Woolpack to borrow a shilling from his wife,had found her drinking beer in the kitchen with Happy Jack.And while Doughy was hammering on the front door,Happy Jack had slipped out at the back,and was watching Doughy's antics over the shoulders of his pals.Presently Doughy grew tired and,crossing the street,sat on the kerbstone in front of Mrs Yabsley's,with his eye on the door.And as he sat,he caressed the tomahawk,and carried on a loud conversation with himself,telling all the secrets of his married life to the street.

Cardigan Street was enjoying itself.The crowd dwindled as the excitement died out,and Doughy was left muttering to himself.From the group at the corner came the roar of a chorus:

You are my honey,honeysuckle,I am the bee,I'd like to sip the honey sweet from those red lips,you see;I love you dearly,dearly,and I want you to love me;You are my honey,honeysuckle,I am the bee.

Doughy still muttered,but the beer had deadened his senses and his jealous anger had evaporated.Half an hour later his wife crossed the street cautiously and went inside.Doughy saw her and,having reached the maudlin stage,got up and lurched across the street,anxious to make it up and be friends.Quite like the old times,thought Mrs Yabsley,when the street was as good as a play.And suddenly remembering her dismal thoughts of an hour ago,she saw in a flash that she had grown old and that the street had remained young.The past,on which her mind dwelt so fondly,was not wonderful.It was her youth that was wonderful,and now she was grown old.She recognized that the street was the same,and that she had changed--that the world is for ever beginning for some and ending for others.