Cotter's England by Christina Stead Read Free Book Online Page A

She was handsome, dark, proud, well dressed—she looked us over and told us to go upstairs, peremptory, like the headmistress of a girls' school. She said she had one room, one for me: and showed us up to the second floor. I was rather pleased that she was a lady. She didn't seem to like Belle. The second floor was nearly all ballroom, with a number of small plain doors opening out of it; another staircase going up."
    "Go on, pet."
    "The woman showed us into a little room at the side, very plain and small with a skylight, no window. It must have been over the entrance. It was too small. I said it wouldn't do. She said, I might get a bigger room later on; but for the rent it was good. There was no running water. I said, But I will never get my luggage in here. She seemed surprised and said, Have you a lot of luggage? I said, Yes, I brought my whole trousseau back with me from overseas. This is true."
    "The woman hesitated, then said she would go downstairs and find what room they had for luggage. While she was away Belle said to me, Why is there no lock? Why is there just a bolt outside the door? I looked and saw that's how it was. When the woman came back, I asked, Why is there a bolt on the outside of the door and no lock inside? The woman was angry. She said it had been a closet and anyway, no one locked the doors there; they were all friends. So we left and said we'd let her know. She was very angry and said I must let her know at once, she had plenty wanting the room. But when we got into the street Belle said it was very funny about the door; and only a cubicle with a skylight. So I have stayed on here, till you got back, Nellie."
    "Aye, I'm glad you did, chick," said Nellie dryly.
    "What do you think of it?"
    Nellie said curtly, "I don't know, pet; it beats me."
    After a short pause, she suddenly became very gay, cajoling and sweet. She told Caroline that she needed a friend, not someone like Belle Coyne, who though no doubt kind, would get her into trouble.
    "I see, I see very well, you need me."
    Nellie said she'd get some drinks, they'd have supper and a nice long talk. But after tea they went out to a local tavern where Nellie was known; and there she was busy exchanging jokes with customers, or arms akimbo, head cocked, watching the men playing darts. The men talked, laughed and glanced sideways at the women. Coming home, Caroline said they were very nice people. She had only been in a public house once or twice in her life.
    Nellie was bored, murmured, "Aye, chick; she's a strange old witch, London is. Look at her now, glamorous with a veil of mystery, the long sameness of the streets end in a soft dream. We need the mists here."
    Caroline laughed, "Then she would be handsomer in a pea-souper."
    "Ah, no, none of your cynicism. Don't tear down my illusions and my loves. I love London because it's all trial and error like my life; terrible mistakes and blind turnings, beautiful prospects and when you look at some stony reality you can glance aside at a beautiful broken dream."
    Caroline laughed a little, but said, "You're fey, I suppose, coming from the north?"
    "Ah, no, not that. I'm not fey. There's one crowd that despises the fey Scot and that's the plain Scot. And we're only half Scots. I'm a mixture of the soft and the hard, though the soft dominates; and so I lose what I've gained. Aye, that's me."
    Caroline said that she felt much better since coming to London. "The dreariness out in Roseland at night! The long country street, a few housefronts, go to the movies, come home early, sit in your bedroom reading a library book by the dim light. Now I know I will be able to write again. I see people. I went to the Rehousing Committee for my interview and sat with the people waiting for homes. Oh, Nellie, what I saw and heard!"
    Nellie said good-naturedly, "You're all alike, you amateurs. Everything is grist to your mill. You don't see the warm natural human material. You see a subject."
    "Isn't it a subject for