HE resolved, first, to try the Institute. Nora's name and address must
be on the class registers; but what business had he with the girl's class
registers? As diplomatist his failure was lamentable. He could invent
no reasonable excuses, and ignoble defeat was his fate at the hands of
the rigid lady who managed the girls department of the Institute. Then
he took to prowling about all the streets that lay beyond that second
corner that had marked the end of their evening walks, watching for her;
searching also, desperately, for some impossible sign about a house that
might suggest that she lived in it. Thus he spent the daylight of two
evenings watching a little muslin-hung window, because the muslin was
tied with a ribbon of a sort he remembered her to have worn, and because
he chose to fancy a neatness and a daintiness about the tying that might
well be hers. But on the second evening as dusk fell the window opened,
and a hairy, red-bearded man in blue shirt sleeves put out his head and
leaned on the sill to smoke his pipe and watch the red sky. Johnny swung
away savagely, and called himself a fool for his pains; and indeed, he
could ill afford to waste time, for Maidment and Hurst claimed him till
five each day, and a few hours in the evening were all that remained;
more, Nora would change her lodgings--perhaps had done so already.
After this he screwed his courage so high as to go to the police-station
where the charge against Nora's mother must have been taken, and to ask
for her address. But the cast-iron-faced inspector in charge took _his_
name and address instead, as a beginning, and then would tell him
nothing. And at last, maddened and reckless, he went to the publican,
and demanded the information of him. Now if Johnny had had a little more
worldly experience, a little more cunning, and a great deal more
coolness, he would have done this at first, and, beginning by ordering a
drink, he would have opened a casual conversation, led it to the matter
of the window, and in the end would have gained his point quietly and
easily. But as it was, he did none of these things. He ordered no
drink, and he made a blunt request, taking little thought of its manner,
none of the publican's point of view, and perhaps forgetting that the man
was in no way responsible for the rebuffs already endured. The publican,
for his part, was already in a bad temper, because of the clumsy tapping
of a barrel and ensuing "cheek" of the potman. So he answered Johnny's
demand by asking if he had come to pay for the window; and receiving the
negative reply he had expected, he urgently recommended the intruder's
departure "outside": in such terms as gave no choice but compliance.
So that now, in extremity, Johnny resolved on a last expedient: one that
had been vaguely in his mind for a day or two, though he had yet scarce
had courage to consider it seriously. This was, to tell his mother the
whole thing; and to induce her, if he might, to ask the address at the
Institute--perhaps on some pretext of dressmaking business. He was not
hopeful, for he well knew that any hint of traffic with the family of one
such as Nora's mother would be a horror to her. But he could see nothing
else, and to sit still were intolerable. Moreover he guessed that his
mother must suspect something from his preoccupation, and his neglect of
his drawing. Though indeed poor Nan was most at pains, just then, to
conceal troubles of her own.
Mr. Butson, in fact, began to chafe under the restraints of narrow
circumstances. Not that he was poorer than had been his habit--indeed he
was much better off--but that his needs had expanded with his prosperity
and with his successes in society. And it was just now that his wife
began to attempt retrenchment. Probably she was encouraged by the
outrageous revolt of her son, a revolt which had made advisable a certain
degree of caution on the part of himself, the head of the household. She
spoke of a rumour that the ship-yard opposite might close, as so many
other Thames ship-yards had closed of late years. That, she said, would
mean ruin for the shop, and she must try to save what little she might,
meantime. An absurdity, of course, in Mr. Butson's view. He felt no
interest in the rumours of old women about ship-yards, and petty
measurement of the sordid chances of trade irritated him. If his wife
found one source of profit running dry, she must look out and tap
another, that was all. So long as he got what he wanted he troubled
little about the manner of its getting. But now he ran near having less
than he wanted, and his wife was growing even less accommodating. She
went so far as to hint of withholding the paltry sum the lad earned; he
should have it himself, she thought, to buy his clothes, and to save
toward the end of his apprenticeship. More than this, Mr. Butson much
suspected that Johnny had actually had his own money for some while past,
and that Mrs. Butson had descended to the mean subterfuge of representing
as his earnings a sum which in reality she extracted each week from the
till; an act of pure embezzlement. And then there was the cottage in
Epping Forest. She wouldn't sell it now, though she wanted to sell when
she first left it. What good was there in keeping it? True there was
three-and-sixpence a week of rent, but that was nothing; it would go in a
round of drinks, or in half a round, in any distinguished bar; and there
were deductions even from the three-and-sixpence. Sold, the cottage
might produce a respectable sum--perhaps a hundred pounds--at anyrate
eighty. The figures stirred his blood. What a magnificent dash a man
might cut with eighty pounds! And a fortune might be made out of it,
too, if it were used wisely, and not buried away in a wretched
three-and-sixpenny cottage. Properly invested on judicious flat-race
Certainties, it would double itself about twice a week. So he made it
very plain to Nan that the sale of the cottage for what it would fetch
and the handing over of the proceeds was a plan he insisted on. But the
stupid woman wouldn't see it. It was plain that she was beginning to
over-estimate her importance in the establishment, by reason that of late
she had not been sufficiently sworn at, shoved, thumped, and twisted and
pinched on the arms. That was the worst of kindness to a woman--she took
advantage.
So that he was obliged to begin to thump again. There was no need to do
it so that Johnny might know, and so cause a low disturbance. In fact,
Johnny took little notice of things at home just now, no longer made
inquiries, nor lifted the poker with so impudent a stare; and he was
scarce indoors at all. Wherefore Mr. Butson punched and ruffianed--being
careful to leave no disreputable marks in visible spots, such as black
eyes--and sometimes he kicked; and he demanded more money and more, but
all the while insisted on the sale of the cottage. The monstrous laws of
conveyance made it impossible for him to lay hands on the deeds and sell
the place himself, or he would have done it, of course. And he made it
advisable, too, for Bessy to avoid him--and that had a better effect than
any direct attack on Nan. Till at last the woman was so far reduced that
she was near a very dangerous rebellion indeed--nearer than Mr. Butson
suspected. For she began to think of attempting a separation by
magistrate's order, shameful as it would be in the neighbourhood. Though
she feared greatly.
So it was when Johnny turned toward home on an evening a little before
nine o'clock, sick of blind searching, and ready to tell his mother the
story of Nora Sansom, first to last. At Harbour Lane corner he saw
Butson walking off, and wondered to see him about Blackwall so early in
the evening.
Nobody was in the shop, and Johnny went through so quietly that he
surprised his mother and Bessy, in the shop-parlour, crying bitterly.
Nan sat on a chair and Bessy bent over her, and no concealment was
possible. Johnny was seized by a dire surmise. "Mother! What's this?"
he said. "What's he been doing?"
Nan bent lower, but answered nothing. Johnny looked toward Bessy, almost
sternly. "He--he's beaten mother again," Bessy blurted, between sobs.
"Beaten mother! Again!" Johnny's face was white, and his nostrils stood
wide and round. "Beaten mother! Again!"
"He's always doing it now," Bessy sobbed. "And wanting more money. I'd
a good mind to tell you before, but--but--"
"Beaten mother!" The room swam before Johnny's eyes. "Why--"
Nan rose to close the door. "No, Johnny," she said meekly. "I'm a bit
upset, but don't let it upset you. Don't you--"
"What's the matter with your leg? You're limping!"
"He kicked her! I saw him kick at her ankle!" Bessy burst out, pouring
forth the tale unrestrained. "I tried to stop him and--and--"
"And then he hit you?" asked Johnny, not so white in the cheeks now, but
whiter than ever about the mouth.
"Yes; but it was mother most!" and Bessy wept afresh.
Perhaps his evenings of disappointment had chastened Johnny's impatience.
He knew that the man was out of reach now, and he forced his fury down.
In ten minutes he knew the whole thing, between Bessy's outpourings and
Nan's tearful admissions.
"When is he coming back?"
They did not know--probably he would be late, as usual. "But don't go
doing anything hasty, Johnny," Nan implored; "I'm so afraid of you doing
something rash! It's not much, really--I'm a bit upset, but--"
"I'll have to think about this," Johnny said, with such calmness that Nan
felt somewhat reassured, though Bessy was inwardly afraid. "I'm going
out for an hour."
He strode away to the Institute, walking by instinct, and seeing nothing
till he was under the lettered lamp. He went to the dressing-room and
hurried into his flannels. In the gymnasium the instructor, a brawny
sergeant of grenadiers, was watching some lads on the horizontal bar.
Johnny approached him with a hesitating request for a "free spar."
"Free spar, my lad?" said the sergeant. "What's up? Gettin' cheeky?
Want to give me a hidin'?"
"No, sergeant," Johnny answered. "Not such a fool as that. But I never
had a free spar with a man much heavier than myself, and--and I just want
to try, that's all!"
There was a comprehending twinkle about the sergeant's eyes. "Right," he
said; "you're givin' me near two stone--that's if you're a bit over
eleven. Fetch the gloves."
At another time Johnny would never have conceived the impudence of asking
the sergeant--once champion of the army--for a free spar. Even a "light"
spar with the sergeant was something of an undertaking, wherein one was
apt to have both hands full, and a bit over. But the lad had his reasons
now.
He dashed at the professor with a straight lead, and soon the blows were
going like hail on a window-pane. The sergeant stood like a rock, and
Johnny's every rush was beaten back as by hammer-blows on the head. But
he came again fresh and eager, and buzzed his master merrily about the
head, getting in a very respectable number of straight drives, such as
would knock an ordinary man down, though the sergeant never winked; and
bringing off one on the "mark" that _did_ knock out a grunt, much as a
punch in that region will knock one out of a squeaking doll.
"Steady," the sergeant called after two long rounds had been sparred.
"You'll get stiff if you keep on at that rate, my lad, and _that's_ not
what you want, I reckon!" This last with a grin. "You haven't been
boxin' regular you know, just lately."
"But you're all right," he added, as they walked aside. "Your work keeps
you in good condition. Not quite so quick as you would ha' been if you'd
been sparrin' every evening, o'course. But quick enough for your job, I
expect." And again Johnny saw the cunning twinkle.
It was about closing time, and when Johnny had changed his clothes, he
found the sergeant leaving also. He thanked him and bade him good-night.
"Good-night, May," the sergeant called, and turned into the street. But
he swung back along the footpath after Johnny, and asked, "Is it
to-morrow?"
"What, sergeant?"
"Oh, I ain't a sergeant--I'm a stranger. There's a sergeant goes to that
moral establishment p'raps," with a nod at the Institute, "but he behaves
strictly proper. I'm just a chap out in the street that would like to
see the fight, that's all. When is it?"
"I don't quite know that myself," Johnny answered.
"Oh--like that, is it? Hum." The sergeant was thoughtful for a
moment--perhaps incredulous. Then he said, "Well, can't be helped, I
suppose. Anyway, keep your left goin' strong, but don't lead quite so
reckless, with your head up an' no guard. You're good enough. An' the
bigger he is, the more to hit!"