DEVLIN THE BARBER TAKES FANNY'S FIRST FLOOR FRONT.
"Our first lodger, sir, was a clerk in the City, and he played the
bassoon that excruciating that our lives become a torment. The
neighbours all complained, and threatened to bring me and Lemon and
the young man and his bassoon before the magerstrates. I told the
clerk that he'd have to give up the second floor front or the bassoon,
and that he might take his choice. He took his choice, and went away
owing me one pound fourteen, and I haven't seen the colour of his
money from that day to this.
"Our second lodger was a printer, who worked all night and slep all
day. I could have stood him if it hadn't turned out that he'd run away
from his wife, who found out where he was living, and give us no
peace. She was a dreadful creature, and I never saw her sober. She
smelt of gin that strong that you knew a mile off when she was coming.
'That's why I left her, Mrs. Lemon,' the poor man said to me; 'she's
been the ruin of me. Three homes has she sold up, and she's that
disgraced me that it makes me wild to hear the sound of her voice. The
law won't help me, and what am I to do?' I made him a cup of tea, and
said I was very sorry for him, but that she wasn't _my_ wife, and that
I'd take it kind of him if he'd find some other lodgings. All he said
was, 'Very well, Mrs. Lemon, I can't blame you; but don't be surprised
if you read in the papers one day that I am brought up for being the
death of her, or that I've made a hole in the water. If she goes on
much longer, one of them things is sure to happen.' He went away
sorrowful, and paid me honourable to the last farthing.
"It wasn't encouraging, sir, but I didn't lose heart. 'The third
time's lucky,' I said to myself, as I put the bill in the winder agin,
little dreaming what was to come of it. It remained there nigh on a
fortnight, when a knock come at the street-door.
"I do all the work in the house myself. A body may be genteel without
keeping a parcel of servants to eat you out of house and home, and
sauce you in the bargain. A knock come at the street-door, as I said.
If I'd known what I know now, the party as knocked might have knocked
till he was blue in the face, or dropped down in a fit before he'd got
me to answer him. But I had no suspicions, and I went and opened the
door, and there I saw a tall, dark man, with a black moustache, curled
up at the ends.
"'You've got a bill in the winder,' said he, 'of a room to let.'
"'Yes, sir,' I answered, hardly giving myself time to look at him, I
was that glad of the chance of letting the room; 'would you like to
see it?'
"'I should,' said he.
"And in he walked, and up the stairs, after me, to the second floor
front. It didn't strike me at the time, but it did often afterwards
when I listened for 'em in vain, that I didn't hear his footsteps as
he follered me up-stairs. Never, from the moment he entered this
house, have I heard the least sound from his feet, and yet he wears
what looks like boots. He's never asked me to clean 'em, and I'd
rather be torn to pieces with red hot pinchers than do it now.
"'It's a cheerful room, sir,' said I to him. 'Looks out on the
square.'
"'Charming,' he said, 'the room, the square, you, everything.'
"'That's a funny way of talking,' I thought, and I said out loud, 'Do
you think it will suit, sir?'
"'Do I think it will suit?' he said. 'I am sure it will suit. I take
it from this minute. What's the rent?'
"'With attendance, sir?' I asked.
"'With or without attendance,' he answered; 'it matters not.'
"Not 'It don't matter,' as ordinary people say, but 'It matters not,'
for all the world like one of them foreign fellers we see on the
stage. I told him the rent, reckoning attendance, and he said:
"'Good. The bargain is made. I am yours, and you are mine.'
"And then he laughed in a way that almost made my hair stand on end.
It wasn't the laugh of a human creature; there was something unearthly
about it. As a rule, a body's pleased when another body laughs, but
this laugh made me shiver all over; you know the sensation, sir, like
cold water running down your back. Then, and a good many times since
when he's been speaking or laughing, I felt myself turn faint with
sech a swimming sensation that I had to ketch hold of something to
keep myself from sinking to the ground.
"'I beg your pardon, sir,' I said, when I come to, 'but if you've no
objections I'd like a reference.'
"'Of course you would,' he said, laughing again, 'and here it is.'
"With that he gives me a sovering, and orders me to light the fire.
There's that about him as makes it unpossible not to do as he orders
you to, so on my knees I went there and then, and lit the fire.
"'Good,' he said. 'I couldn't have done it better myself. Mrs.
Lemon--' and you might have knocked me down with a feather when I
heard him speak my name. How did he get to know it? _I_ never told
him.--Mrs. Lemon,' said he, 'I see in your face that you'd like to ask
me a question or two.'
"'I would, sir,' I said, shaking and trembling all over. 'If I may
make so bold, sir, are you a married man?'
"He put his hand on his heart, and, grinning all over his face,
answered, 'Mrs. Lemon, I am, and have ever been, single.'
"'Might I be so bold as to ask your name, sir?' I said.
"'Devlin,' said he.
"'Dev--what?' I garsped.
"'Lin,' said he. 'Devlin. I'll spell it for you. D-e-v-l-i-n. Have you
got it well in your mind?'
"'I have, sir,' I said, very faint.
"'Good,' said he, pointing to the door. 'Go.'
"I had to go, sir, and I went, and that is how Mr. Devlin become our
lodger."