The Letting of the Room
It will be remembered that when the men separated, Owen going to the
office to see Rushton, and the others on their several ways, Easton and
Slyme went together.
During the day Easton had found an opportunity of speaking to him about
the bedroom. Slyme was about to leave the place where he was at present
lodging, and he told Easton that although he had almost decided on
another place he would take a look at the room. At Easton’s suggestion
they arranged that Slyme was to accompany him home that night. As the
former remarked, Slyme could come to see the place, and if he didn’t
like it as well as the other he was thinking of taking, there was no
harm done.
Ruth had contrived to furnish the room. Some of the things she had
obtained on credit from a second-hand furniture dealer. Exactly how she
had managed, Easton did not know, but it was done.
“This is the house,” said Easton. As they passed through, the gate
creaked loudly on its hinges and then closed of itself rather noisily.
Ruth had just been putting the child to sleep and she stood up as they
came in, hastily fastening the bodice of her dress as she did so.
“I’ve brought a gentleman to see you,” said Easton.
Although she knew that he was looking out for someone for the room,
Ruth had not expected him to bring anyone home in this sudden manner,
and she could not help wishing that he had told her beforehand of his
intention. It being Monday, she had been very busy all day and she was
conscious that she was rather untidy in her appearance. Her long brown
hair was twisted loosely into a coil behind her head. She blushed in an
embarrassed way as the young man stared at her.
Easton introduced Slyme by name and they shook hands; and then at
Ruth’s suggestion Easton took a light to show him the room, and while
they were gone Ruth hurriedly tidied her hair and dress.
When they came down again Slyme said he thought the room would suit him
very well. What were the terms?
Did he wish to take the room only—just to lodge? inquired Ruth, or
would he prefer to board as well?
Slyme intimated that he desired the latter arrangement.
In that case she thought twelve shillings a week would be fair. She
believed that was about the usual amount. Of course that would include
washing, and if his clothes needed a little mending she would do it for
him.
Slyme expressed himself satisfied with these terms, which were as Ruth
had said—about the usual ones. He would take the room, but he was not
leaving his present lodgings until Saturday. It was therefore agreed
that he was to bring his box on Saturday evening.
When he had gone, Easton and Ruth stood looking at each other in
silence. Ever since this plan of letting the room first occurred to
them they had been very anxious to accomplish it; and yet, now that it
was done, they felt dissatisfied and unhappy, as if they had suddenly
experienced some irreparable misfortune. In that moment they remembered
nothing of the darker side of their life together. The hard times and
the privations were far off and seemed insignificant beside the fact
that this stranger was for the future to share their home. To Ruth
especially it seemed that the happiness of the past twelve months had
suddenly come to an end. She shrank with involuntary aversion and
apprehension from the picture that rose before her of the future in
which this intruder appeared the most prominent figure, dominating
everything and interfering with every detail of their home life. Of
course they had known all this before, but somehow it had never seemed
so objectionable as it did now, and as Easton thought of it he was
filled with an unreasonable resentment against Slyme, as if the latter
had forced himself upon them against their will.
“Damn him!” he thought. “I wish I’d never brought him here at all!”
Ruth did not appear to him to be very happy about it either.
“Well?” he said at last. “What do you think of him?”
“Oh, he’ll be all right, I suppose.”
“For my part, I wish he wasn’t coming,” Easton continued.
“That’s just what I was thinking,” replied Ruth dejectedly. “I don’t
like him at all. I seemed to turn against him directly he came in the
door.”
“I’ve a good mind to back out of it, somehow, tomorrow,” exclaimed
Easton after another silence. “I could tell him we’ve unexpectedly got
some friends coming to stay with us.”
“Yes,” said Ruth eagerly. “It would be easy enough to make some excuse
or other.”
As this way of escape presented itself she felt as if a weight had been
lifted from her mind, but almost in the same instant she remembered the
reasons which had at first led them to think of letting the room, and
she added, disconsolately:
“It’s foolish for us to go on like this, dear. We must let the room and
it might just as well be him as anyone else. We must make the best of
it, that’s all.”
Easton stood with his back to the fire, staring gloomily at her.
“Yes, I suppose that’s the right way to look at it,” he replied at
length. “If we can’t stand it, we’ll give up the house and take a
couple of rooms, or a small flat—if we can get one.”
Ruth agreed, although neither alternative was very inviting. The
unwelcome alteration in their circumstances was after all not
altogether without its compensations, because from the moment of
arriving at this decision their love for each other seemed to be
renewed and intensified. They remembered with acute regret that
hitherto they had not always fully appreciated the happiness of that
exclusive companionship of which there now remained to them but one
week more. For once the present was esteemed at its proper value, being
invested with some of the glamour which almost always envelops the
past.