In due time, Mrs. Darlington removed to a house in Arch Street, the annual
rent of which was six hundred dollars, and there began her experiment. The
expense of a removal, and the cost of the additional chamber furniture
required, exhausted about two hundred dollars of the widow's slender stock
of money, and caused her to feel a little troubled when she noted the
diminution.
She began her new business with two boarders, a gentleman and his wife by
the name of Grimes, who had entered her house on the recommendation of a
friend. They were to pay her the sum of eight dollars a week. A young man
named Barling, clerk in a wholesale Market Street house, came next; and he
introduced, soon after, a friend of his, a clerk in the same store, named
Mason. They were room-mates, and paid three dollars and a half each. Three
or four weeks elapsed before any further additions were made; then an
advertisement brought several applications. One was from a gentleman who
wanted two rooms for himself and wife, a nurse and four children. He wanted
the second story front and back chambers, furnished, and was not willing to
pay over sixteen dollars, although his oldest child was twelve and his
youngest four years of age--seven good eaters and two of the best rooms in
the house for sixteen dollars!
Mrs. Darlington demurred. The man said--
"Very well, ma'am," in a tone of indifference. "I can find plenty of
accommodations quite as good as yours for the price I offer. It's all I pay
now."
Poor Mrs. Darlington sighed. She had but fifteen dollars yet in the
house--that is, boarders who paid this amount weekly--and the rent alone
amounted to twelve dollars. Sixteen dollars, she argued with herself, as
she sat with her eyes upon the floor, would make a great difference in her
income; would, in fact, meet all the expenses of the house. Two good rooms
would still remain, and all that she received for these would be so much
clear profit. Such was the hurried conclusion of Mrs. Darlington's mind.
"I suppose I will have to take you," said she, lifting her eyes to the
man's hard features. "But those rooms ought to bring me twenty-four
dollars."
"Sixteen is the utmost I will pay," replied the man. "In fact, I did think
of offering only fourteen dollars. But the rooms are fine, and I like them.
Sixteen is a liberal price. Your terms are considerably above the ordinary
range."
The widow sighed again.
If the man heard this sound, it did not touch a single chord of feeling.
"Then it is understood that I am to have your rooms at sixteen dollars?"
said he.
"Yes, sir. I will take you for that."
"Very well. My name is Scragg. We will be ready to come in on Monday next.
You can have all prepared for us?"
"Yes, sir."
Scarcely had Mr. Scragg departed, when a gentleman called to know if Mrs.
Darlington had a vacant front room in the second story.
"I had this morning; but it is taken," replied the widow.
"Ah! I'm sorry for that."
"Will not a third story front room suit you?"
"No. My wife is not in very good health, and wishes a second story room. We
pay twelve dollars a week, and would even give more, if necessary, to
obtain just the accommodations we like. The situation of your house pleases
me. I'm sorry that I happen to be too late."
"Will you look at the room?" said Mrs. Darlington, into whose mind came the
desire to break the bad bargain she had just made.
"If you please," returned the man.
And both went up to the large and beautifully furnished chambers.
"Just the thing!" said the man, as he looked around, much pleased with the
appearance of everything. "But I understood you to say that it was taken."
"Why, yes," replied Mrs. Darlington, "I did partly engage it this morning;
but, no doubt, I can arrange with the family to take the two rooms above,
which will suit them just as well."
"If you can"--
"There'll be no difficulty, I presume. You'll pay twelve dollars a week?"
"Yes."
"Only yourself and lady?"
"That's all."
"Very well, sir; you can have the room."
"It's a bargain, then. My name is Ring. Our week is up to-day where we are;
and, if it is agreeable, we will become your guests to-morrow."
"Perfectly agreeable, Mr. Ring."
The gentleman bowed politely and retired.
Now Mrs. Darlington did not feel very comfortable when she reflected on
what she had done. The rooms in the second story were positively engaged to
Mr. Scragg, and now one of them was as positively engaged to Mr. Ring. The
face of Mr. Scragg she remembered very well. It was a hard, sinister face,
just such a one as we rarely forget because of the disagreeable impression
it makes. As it came up distinctly before the eyes of her mind, she was
oppressed with a sense of coming trouble. Nor did she feel altogether
satisfied with what she had done--satisfied in her own conscience.
On the next morning, Mr. and Mrs. Ring came and took possession of the room
previously engaged to Mr. Scragg. They were pleasant people, and made a
good first impression.
As day after day glided past, Mrs. Darlington felt more and more uneasy
about Mr. Scragg, with whom, she had a decided presentiment, there would be
trouble. Had she known where to find him, she would have sent him a note,
saying that she had changed her mind about the rooms, and could not let him
have them. But she was ignorant of his address; and the only thing left for
her was to wait until he came on Monday, and then get over the difficulty
in the best way possible. She and Edith had talked over the matter
frequently, and had come to the determination to offer Mr. Scragg the two
chambers in the third story for fourteen dollars.
On Monday morning, Mrs. Darlington was nervous. This was the day on which
Mr. Scragg and family were to arrive, and she felt that there would be
trouble.
Mr. Ring, and the other gentlemen boarders, left soon after breakfast.
About ten o'clock, the door-bell rang. Mrs. Darlington was in her room at
the time changing her dress. Thinking that this might be the announcement
of Mr. Scragg's arrival, she hurried through her dressing in order to get
down to the parlor as quickly as possible to meet him and the difficulty
that was to be encountered; but before she was in a condition to be seen,
she heard a man's voice on the stairs saying--
"Walk up, my dear. The rooms on the second floor are ours."
Then came the noise of many feet in the passage, and the din of children's
voices. Mr. Scragg and his family had arrived.
Mrs. Ring was sitting with the morning paper in her hand, when her door was
flung widely open, and a strange man stepped boldly in, saying, as he did
so, to the lady who followed him--
"This is one of the chambers."
Mrs. Ring arose, bowed, and looked at the intruders with surprise and
embarrassment. Just then, four rude children bounded into the room,
spreading themselves around it, and making themselves perfectly at home.
"There is some mistake, I presume," said Mrs. Scragg, on perceiving a lady
in the room, whose manner said plainly enough that they were out of their
place.
"Oh no! no mistake at all," replied Scragg. "These are the two rooms I
engaged."
Just then Mrs. Darlington entered, in manifest excitement.
"Walk down into the parlor, if you please," said she.
"These are our rooms," said Scragg, showing no inclination to vacate the
premises.
"Be kind enough to walk down into the parlor," repeated Mrs. Darlington,
whose sense of propriety was outraged by the man's conduct, and who felt a
corresponding degree of indignation.
With some show of reluctance, this invitation was acceded to, and Mr.
Scragg went muttering down stairs, followed by his brood. The moment he
left the chamber, the door was shut and locked by Mrs. Ring, who was a good
deal frightened by so unexpected an intrusion.
"What am I to understand by this, madam?" said Mr. Scragg, fiercely, as
soon as they had all reached the parlor, planting his hands upon his hips
as he spoke, drawing himself up, and looking at Mrs. Darlington with a
lowering countenance.
"Take a seat, madam," said Mrs. Darlington, addressing the man's wife in a
tone of forced composure. She was struggling for self-possession.
The lady sat down.
"Will you be good enough to explain the meaning of all this, madam?"
repeated Mr. Scragg.
"The meaning is simply," replied Mrs. Darlington, "that I have let the
front room in the second story to a gentleman and his wife for twelve
dollars a-week."
"The deuce you have!" said Mr. Scragg, with a particular exhibition of
gentlemanly indignation. "And pray, madam, didn't you let both the rooms in
the second story to me for sixteen dollars?"
"I did; but"--
"Oh, very well. That's all I wish to know about it. The rooms were rented
to me, and from that day became mine. Please to inform the lady and her
husband that I am here with my family, and desire them to vacate the
chambers as quickly as possible. I'm a man that knows his rights, and,
knowing, always maintains them."
"You cannot have the rooms, sir. That is out of the question," said Mrs.
Darlington, looking both distressed and indignant.
"And I tell you that I will have them!" replied Scragg, angrily.
"Peter! Peter! Don't act so," now interposed Mrs. Scragg. "There's no use
in it."
"Ain't there, indeed! We'll see. Madam"--he addressed Mrs.
Darlington--"will you be kind enough to inform the lady and gentleman who
now occupy one of our rooms"--
"Mr. Scragg!" said Mrs. Darlington, in whose fainting heart his outrageous
conduct had awakened something of the right spirit--"Mr. Scragg, I wish you
to understand, once for all, that the front room is taken and now occupied,
and that you cannot have it."
"Madam!"
"It's no use for you to waste words, sir! What I say I mean. I have other
rooms in the house very nearly as good, and am willing to take you for
something less in consideration of this disappointment. If that will meet
your views, well; if not, let us have no more words on the subject."
There was a certain something in Mrs. Darlington's tone of voice that
Scragg understood to mean a fixed purpose. Moreover, his mind caught at the
idea of getting boarded for something less than sixteen dollars a-week.
"Where are the rooms?" he asked, gruffly.
"The third story chambers."
"Front?"
"Yes."
"I don't want to go to the third story."
"Very well. Then you can have the back chamber down stairs, and the front
chamber above."
"What will be your charge?"
"Fourteen dollars."
"That will do, Peter," said Mrs. Scragg. "Two dollars a week is
considerable abatement."
"It's something, of course. But I don't like this off and on kind of
business. When I make an agreement, I'm up to the mark, and expect the same
from everybody else. Will you let my wife see the rooms, madam?"
"Certainly," replied Mrs. Darlington, and moved towards the door. Mrs.
Scragg followed, and so did all the juvenile Scraggs--the latter springing
up the stairs with the agility of apes and the noise of a dozen rude
schoolboys just freed from the terror of rod and ferule.
The rooms suited Mrs. Scragg very well--at least such was her report to her
husband--and, after some further rudeness on the part of Mr. Scragg, and an
effort to beat Mrs. Darlington down to twelve dollars a-week, were taken,
and forthwith occupied.
* * * *