When Billy Chope married Lizerunt there was a small rejoicing. There was
no wedding-party; because it was considered that what there might be to
drink would be better in the family. Lizerunt's father was not, and her
mother felt no interest in the affair; not having seen her daughter for
a year, and happening, at the time, to have a month's engagement in
respect of a drunk and disorderly. So that there were but three of them;
and Billy Chope got exceedingly tipsy early in the day; and in the
evening his bride bawled a continual chorus, while his mother,
influenced by that unwonted quartern of gin the occasion sanctioned,
wept dismally over her boy, who was much too far gone to resent it.
His was the chief reason for rejoicing. For Lizerunt had always been
able to extract ten shillings a week from the pickle factory, and it was
to be presumed that as Lizer Chope her earning capacity would not
diminish; and the wages would make a very respectable addition to the
precarious revenue, depending on the mangle, that Billy extorted from
his mother. As for Lizer, she was married. That was the considerable
thing; for she was but a few months short of eighteen, and that, as you
know, is a little late.
Of course there were quarrels very soon; for the new Mrs. Chope, less
submissive at first than her mother-in-law, took a little breaking in,
and a liberal renewal of the manual treatment once applied in her
courting days. But the quarrels between the women were comforting to
Billy: a diversion and a source of better service.
As soon as might be, Lizer took the way of womankind. This circumstance
brought an unexpected half-crown from the evangelical rector who had
married the couple gratis; for recognizing Billy in the street by
accident, and being told of Mrs. Chope's prospects, as well as that
Billy was out of work (a fact undeniable), he reflected that his
principles did on occasion lead to discomfort of a material sort. And
Billy, to whose comprehension the half-crown opened a new field of
receipt, would doubtless have long remained a client of the rector, had
not that zealot hastened to discover a vacancy for a warehouse porter,
the offer of presentation whereunto alienated Billy Chope forever. But
there were meetings and demonstrations of the Unemployed; and it was
said that shillings had been given away; and, as being at a meeting in a
street was at least as amusing as being in a street where there was no
meeting, Billy often went, on the off chance. But his lot was chiefly
disappointment: wherefore he became more especially careful to furnish
himself ere he left home.
For certain weeks cash came less freely than ever from the two women.
Lizer spoke of providing for the necessities of the expected child: a
manifestly absurd procedure, as Billy pointed out, since, if they were
unable to clothe or feed it, the duty would fall on its grandmother.
That was law, and nobody could get over it. But even with this argument,
a shilling cost him many more demands and threats than it had used, and
a deal more general trouble.
At last Lizer ceased from going to the pickle factory, and could not
even help Billy's mother at the mangle for long. This lasted for near a
week, when Billy, rising at ten with a bad mouth, resolved to stand no
nonsense, and demanded two shillings.
"Two bob? Wot for?" Lizer asked.
"'Cos I want it. None o' yer lip."
"Ain't got it," said Lizer sulkily.
"That's a bleed'n' lie."
"Lie yerself."
"I'll break y' in 'arves, ye blasted 'eifer!" He ran at her throat and
forced her back over a chair. "I'll pull yer face auf! If y' don't give
me the money, gawblimy, I'll do for ye!"
Lizer strained and squalled. "Le' go! You'll kill me an' the kid too!"
she grunted hoarsely. Billy's mother ran in and threw her arms about
him, dragging him away. "Don't, Billy," she said, in terror. "Don't,
Billy--not now! You'll get in trouble. Come away! She might go auf, an'
you'd get in trouble!"
Billy Chope flung his wife over and turned to his mother. "Take yer
'ands auf me," he said: "go on, or I'll gi' ye somethin' for yerself."
And he punched her in the breast by way of illustration.
"You shall 'ave what I've got, Billy, if it's money," the mother said.
"But don't go an' git yerself in trouble, don't. Will a shillin' do?"
"No, it won't. Think I'm a bloomin' kid? I mean 'avin' two bob this
mornin'."
"I was a-keepin' it for the rent, Billy, but--"
"Yus; think o' the bleed'n' lan'lord 'fore me, doncher?" And he pocketed
the two shillings. "I ain't settled with you yut, my gal," he added to
Lizer; "mikin' about at 'ome an' 'idin' money. You wait a bit."
Lizer had climbed into an erect position, and, gravid and slow, had got
as far as the passage. Mistaking this for a safe distance, she replied
with defiant railings. Billy made for her with a kick that laid her on
the lower stairs, and, swinging his legs round his mother as she
obstructed him, entreating him not to get in trouble, he attempted to
kick again in a more telling spot. But a movement among the family
upstairs and a tap at the door hinted of interference, and he took
himself off.
Lizer lay doubled upon the stairs, howling: but her only articulate cry
was, "Gawd 'elp me, it's comin'!"
Billy went to the meeting of the Unemployed, and cheered a proposal to
storm the Tower of London. But he did not join the procession following
a man with a handkerchief on a stick, who promised destruction to every
policeman in his path: for he knew the fate of such processions. With a
few others, he hung about the nearest tavern for a while, on the chance
of the advent of a flush sailor from St. Katharine's, disposed to treat
out-o'-workers. Then he went alone to a quieter beer-house and took a
pint or two at his own expense. A glance down the music-hall bills
hanging in the bar having given him a notion for the evening, he
bethought himself of dinner, and made for home.
The front door was open, and in the first room, where the mangle stood,
there were no signs of dinner. And this was at three o'clock! Billy
pushed into the room behind, demanding why.
"Billy," Lizer said faintly from her bed, "look at the baby!"
Something was moving feebly under a flannel petticoat. Billy pulled the
petticoat aside, and said, "That? Well, it _is_ a measly snipe." It was
a blind, hairless homunculus, short of a foot long, with a skinny face
set in a great skull. There was a black bruise on one side from hip to
armpit. Billy dropped the petticoat and said, "Where's my dinner?"
"I dunno," Lizer responded hazily. "Wot's the time?"
"Time? Don't try to kid me. You git up; go on. I want my dinner."
"Mother's gittin' it, I think," said Lizer. "Doctor had to slap 'im like
anythink 'fore 'e'd cry. 'E don't cry now much. 'E--"
"Go on; out ye git. I do' want no more damn jaw. Git my dinner."
"I'm a-gittin' of it, Billy," his mother said, at the door. She had
begun when he first entered. "It won't be a minute."
"You come 'ere; y' ain't alwis s' ready to do 'er work, are ye? She
ain't no call to stop there no longer, an' I owe 'er one for this
mornin'. Will ye git out, or shall I kick ye?"
"She can't, Billy," his mother said. And Lizer snivelled and said,
"You're a damn brute. Y' ought to be bleedin' well booted."
But Billy had her by the shoulders and began to haul; and again his
mother besought him to remember what he might bring upon himself. At
this moment the doctor's dispenser, a fourth-year London Hospital
student of many inches, who had been washing his hands in the kitchen,
came in. For a moment he failed to comprehend the scene. Then he took
Billy Chope by the collar, hauled him pell-mell along the passage,
kicked him (hard) into the gutter, and shut the door.
When he returned to the room, Lizer, sitting up and holding on by the
bed-frame, gasped hysterically: "Ye bleedin' makeshift, I'd 'ave yer
liver out if I could reach ye! You touch my 'usband, ye long pisenin'
'ound you! Ow!" And, infirm of aim, she flung a cracked teacup at his
head. Billy's mother said, "Y' ought to be ashamed of yourself, you low
blaggard. If 'is father was alive 'e'd knock yer 'ead auf. Call yourself
a doctor--a passel o' boys!--Git out! Go out o' my 'ouse, or I'll give
y' in charge!"
"But--why, hang it, he'd have killed her." Then to Lizer, "Lie down."
"Sha'n't lay down. Keep auf! if you come near me I'll corpse ye. You go
while ye're safe!"
The dispenser appealed to Billy's mother. "For God's sake make her lie
down. She'll kill herself. I'll go. Perhaps the doctor had better come."
And he went: leaving the coast clear for Billy Chope to return and
avenge his kicking.