AFLOAT
It was discovered over a basket-maker's shop at the top of a rather dark
staircase; a deterring approach, as Mr. Churchill reflected, but he
rightly supposed they had not had much choice of premises. On reaching
the room, however, he was surprised to see how nice it looked, and how
very unlike a restaurant. It had been used to warehouse the
basket-maker's stock, and had a spacious floor, though a rather low
ceiling, and, like the staircase, was ill lighted for its present
purpose. But Jenny and her mother had papered it with a yellow paper,
and draped yellow muslin around, not over, the dim windows; by which
means they had put light and brightness into it, as well as an air of
elegance not to be expected in such a place. It was the day of art
muslins, and this was very pretty art muslin, with a brownish pattern
meandering through the yellow; and it had little frills at the edges,
and brown bands to draw the curtains to the wall, which had a cultured
look. And, although these decorations were comparatively perishable and
soilable, they had cost little, and would last a considerable time, if
not for ever. The floor was covered with plain brown linoleum, that
looked like brown paint, and scattered in inviting groups about it were
a number of low chairs and tables in brown wickerwork, supplied by the
basket-maker downstairs, who had been glad to deal reasonably in this
matter as in other arrangements, with a view to mutual benefits from the
amalgamation of the new enterprise with his own struggling trade,
hitherto crushed by the weight of central city rents. The chair bottoms
were cushioned in various pretty chintzes of aesthetic hue, and each
table-top furnished with a Japanese tray, containing cups and saucers
and a little glass sugar-basin and milk-jug, protected by a square of
muslin from the wandering fly. Heavier chairs and more solid tables,
furniture from the old home, were mixed with these, and a capacious
family sideboard bore a multitude of brown earthen teapots of different
sizes. The whole effect of these inexpensive arrangements was soothing
to the cultivated eye and the instructed mind.
"I wish I had known," said Mr. Churchill to himself, as he calculated
the rough cost in one comprehensive glance. "I would have supplied them
with all they wanted at first cost."
He looked for his daughter, but she was still detained by Mrs. Earl, a
lady more rushed by clients than a fashionable doctor, and he found that
he was the only customer of the tea-room, and the first. His heavy step
stumbling on the staircase had announced his approach, and two of the
proprietors received him with an anxious air. One of these, a
bent-backed, immature girl with a sharp-featured face, retired to a
table in a corner, where she began to sew, watching him the while; the
other came forward to play the hostess with a charming dignity of mien.
He did not know her, but she knew him--Joey had pointed out "the boss"
to her in a hundred crowds; Mrs. Liddon, peeping from behind the screen
that masked the passage to her kitchen, nervous at the approach of a
lone man, knew him also, and pardonably remained in ambush to learn
what he had to say. She did hope he was not one of those gay old
gentlemen who were worse than the young ones in their pursuit of
defenceless girls.
Jenny was looking very sweet at that moment, with the flush of
excitement in her small, bright face. She had clear, straight-browed
eyes, and a slightly tilted nose, and an assertive chin, which somehow
combined to make a whole that nobody said was beautiful and yet
everybody was attracted by; it was piquant and spirited, finely finished
and full of life. Her small figure was as refined as her face, and the
plain black gown and bibbed holland apron that she wore became it
perfectly. She was a picture of neatness and capability as she stepped
forward to receive her unexpected guest, and his business-like soul
warmed towards her. Though he was not the philanderer so much dreaded by
Mrs. Liddon, he admired her as a mere woman with that part of his soul
which was not business-like. She looked so sincere and wholesome.
"Miss Liddon, I presume?"
"Yes, sir."
They bowed to each other.
"Hm--ha--I must introduce myself--Mr. Churchill, my dear--excuse my
freedom--I am not exactly a stranger----"
"Oh no, sir!"
She was violently crimson, thinking of the returned cheque; so was he,
from the same cause.
"I--I--I was reading my paper this morning--I wasn't sure if it was the
same--I thought it might be--and--and I owe much to your good father, my
dear--his long and faithful services--a heavy loss to the firm--there,
there! I beg your pardon for mentioning it--all I meant to say was that
we take a great interest in his family, and I thought--I fancied
perhaps--in short, my dear, I have come to congratulate you on your
courage and energy. I see it all--I understand--I am a business man
myself--I should have done the same in your place, though it grieved me
to have it come back--it did, indeed; I was so anxious to do something.
Anyway, I thought you wouldn't mind my coming to see how you were
getting on--your father's old friend--and to offer you my good wishes,
and whatever assistance you will honour me by accepting. Oh, not
money--I know you won't have that--but advice as to buying goods, and
so on--matters in which my experience might be of help to you. It would
be a pleasure to me, my dear, I do assure you."
Jenny listened with heaving breast and drooping head, and tears began to
well up, overflow, and fall; seeing which, the old man took her little
hand and paternally patted it. Whereupon Mrs. Liddon rushed out from
behind her screen.
Jenny received her with emotion--a swift whisk of a handkerchief across
her eyes and an impassioned smile.
"This, mother, is Mr. Churchill. He is so good as to take an interest in
our experiment. He has come to wish us success."
"Madam," said the old gentleman, who was thoroughly enjoying himself, "I
am proud and happy to make your acquaintance. And let me say that
success is assured to an enterprise undertaken in such a spirit and with
so much good sense. I don't know when I have been so interested as in
seeing this young lady--this delicate young creature"--indicating Jenny,
who was as tough as perfect health and an active life could make
her--"turning to, and setting her shoulder to the wheel, in this--this
gallant fashion. Your husband, ma'am, was one of the best of men and
gentlemen--I always knew that; but I did not know that he was so blessed
in his family. I did not, indeed."
"You know his son, sir," murmured the widow, who was very proud of her
handsome boy.
"Your son," said Mr. Churchill, "is very well--a very good son, I make
no doubt; but he's not half the man that your daughter is. My dear, I
mean that for a compliment, though it may not sound like one." He gazed
at Jenny's now smiling face, and added abruptly, "It was you who
wouldn't be beholden to us for a trumpery hundred pounds, wasn't it?"
She looked down, and again coloured violently.
"Ah, I see. You felt yourself grossly insulted. I am sure you did."
"Oh, no, no," the mother eagerly interposed. "Pray don't think that. We
were all most grateful--indeed, we were. But Jenny said----"
"Yes, I understand. Her name is Jenny, is it? I think I can guess what
Miss Jenny said. She's as proud as Lucifer--I can see that; but I
honour her for it. I honour you for it, my dear. It's the sort of pride
that a good many would be the better for. You are a born lady, my dear,
and that's the short and the long of it."
Then he asked to be shown the premises, and the happy women took him
over them, and displayed all their economical contrivances, which quite
bore out his preconceptions of Jenny's excellence as a business manager
and a woman. He attributed it all to Jenny, and indeed it was her hands
which had made the frilled curtains and the restful chair cushions, and
devised whatever was original in the commissariat arrangements. Mrs.
Liddon's kitchen was her own great pride, and also her store of new-made
scones, which were as light as feathers.
"You must give me some tea and scones," said Mr. Churchill, "that I may
taste what they are like. I must do that, you know, before I recommend
them to my friends."
"Of course," said Jenny; and she quickly arranged a table, with two
scones on a plate and a tiny pat of iced butter; and her mother handed
her a small, hot teapot from behind the screen.
"Earthen pots seemed sweeter than metal, for so much use," she said,
placing it before him; "and we thought these trays nicer to eat from
than anything else we could afford. Both are liable to break, but they
were cheap."
"They would have been cheaper," he said, "if you had come to me. Mind
you come to me when you want some more."
Then he ate and drank and smacked his lips, gravely, as if judging wine
for experts. The women hung upon the verdict with trembling anxiety.
"Excellent," he exclaimed, "excellent! Never tasted better tea in my
life--nor scones either. And butter delicious. Keep it up at this, my
dear, and you'll do. I'll send everybody I know to have tea with you, if
you'll only promise to keep it up. All depends on that, you know."
"I know," said Jenny. "And that we may do it, we have undertaken nothing
_but_ tea and scones at present. By-and-by we will have coffee, and,
perhaps, cakes and other things. But at present, doing everything
ourselves, we have to be careful not to get muddled--not to try more
than we can do well. We can't run out of tea and scones, nor need we
waste any. Mother _can_ make a batch in a quarter of an hour, if
necessary."
"Good," said the merchant, to whom the smallest details were important
in matters of business; and he began to fumble in his pocket. "Who's the
cashier?" he asked.
"I am," replied Sarah, from behind her little table, on which stood two
wooden bowls and neat piles of paper tickets.
"And what's to pay?" he inquired, advancing with his hand full of loose
silver.
"Sixpence," said she shyly.
"Sixpence," he repeated, with a meditative air, "sixpence; yes, that
will do. Neither too much nor too little--though that's expensive tea.
When you want a fresh stock of tea, Miss Jenny, let me know, will you?
Come, you needn't hesitate; I'm not offering to give it to you. I'm as
much a business man as you are."
"You are very good," murmured Jenny; "and I will."
He took change for the shilling, which was his smallest coin; and then
he began to think it time to return to his office, from which he had
been absent nearly an hour. As he was stumbling downstairs, after warmly
shaking hands with the family, he met his daughter coming up.
"What! you, Mary?" he exclaimed, for he had forgotten all about her.
"What! you, father?" she responded. "Are you here before me? That is
kind of you. Oh, I'm so tired! Two frocks in one morning! But I suppose
I ought to be thankful that she'll do them. Is the tea really good,
father? If it is, I think I'll make my lunch here, instead of going
home, and Maude can pick me up at the office when she comes in this
afternoon. Telephone to her when you go back, and say so, will you,
dear?"
"I will," said Mr. Churchill. "And the tea and scones are all that they
profess to be. A charming little place, and people too. Come, I will
introduce you before I go."
He took her in, introduced her, and left her. She stayed till nearly one
o'clock, talking much as her father had done, with all his kindness and
her own more dignified reserve, and rejoined him at the office, after
some shopping, much impressed with Jenny. Later, Mrs. Churchill,
resplendent, drove into town, and her big carriage got itself into
Little Collins Street, and she was made to take tea and scones in her
turn, and found them so excellent that she spent the rest of the
afternoon in talking about them to her friends, and about the pretty,
poky place that was so sensationally opposed to all one's ideas of a
restaurant. It was the amusement of the day, and resulted in making the
tea-room fashionable.