‘All right. Then I shall send for a man at once, and have the door forced.’
Mrs. Mutimer knew well the tone in which these words were spoken; more than once ere now it had been the preliminary of decided action. Already Richard had reached the head of the stairs, when he heard a key turn, and the bedroom door was thrown open with such violence that the walls shook. He approached the threshold and examined the interior.
There was only one noticeable change in the appearance of the bedroom since he had last seen it. The dressing-table was drawn near to the fire, and on it were a cup and saucer, a few plates, some knives, forks, and spoons, and a folded tablecloth. A kettle and a saucepan stood on the fender. Her bread and butter Mrs. Mutimer kept in a drawer. All the appointments of the chamber were as clean and orderly as could be.
The sight of his mother’s face all but stilled Richard’s anger; she was yellow and wasted; her hair seemed far more grizzled than he remembered it. She stood as far from him as she could get, in an attitude not devoid of dignity, and looked him straight in the face. He closed the door.
‘Mother, I’ve not come here to quarrel with you,’ Mutimer began, his voice much softened. ‘What’s done is done, and there’s no helping it. I can understand you being angry at first, but there’s no sense in making enemies of us all in this way. It can’t go on any longer—neither for your sake nor ours. I want to talk reasonably, and to make some kind of arrangement.’
‘You want to get me out o’ the ‘ouse. I’m ready to go, an’ glad to go. I’ve earnt my livin’ before now, an’ I’m not so old but I can do it again. You always was one for talkin’, but the fewest words is best. Them as talks most isn’t allus the most straightfor’ard.’
‘It isn’t that kind of talk that’ll do any good, mother. I tell you again, I’m not going to use angry words; You know perfectly well I’ve never behaved badly to you, and I’m not going to begin now. What I’ve got to say is that you’ve no right to go on like this. Whilst you’ve been shutting yourself up in this room, there’s Alice living by herself, which it isn’t right she should do; and there’s ‘Arry going to the bad as fast as he can, and just because you won’t help to look after him. If you’ll only think of it in the right way, you’ll see that’s a good deal your doing. If ‘Arry turns out a scamp and a blackguard, it’s you that ‘ll be greatly to blame for it. You might have helped to look after him. I always thought you’d more common sense. You may say what you like about me, and I don’t care; but when you talk about working for your living, you ought to remember that there’s work enough near at hand, if only you’d see to it.’
‘I’ve nothing to do neither with you nor ‘Arry nor Alice,’ answered the old woman stubbornly. ‘If ‘Arry disgraces his name, he won’t be the first as has done it. I done my best to bring you all up honest, but that was a long time ago, and things has changed. You’re old enough to go your own ways, an’ your ways isn’t mine. I told you how it ‘ud be, an’ the only mistake I made was comin’ to live here at all. Now I can’t be left alone, an’ I’ll go. You’ve no call to tell me a second time.’
It was a long, miserable wrangle, lasting half an hour, before a possibility of agreement presented itself. Richard at length ceased to recriminate, and allowed his mother to talk herself to satiety. He then said:
‘I’m thinking of giving up this house, mother. What I want to know is, whether it would please you to go back to the old place again? I ask you because I can think of ud other way for putting you in comfort. You must say and think what you like, only just answer me the one question as I ask it—that is, honestly and good-temperedly. I shall have to take ‘Arry away with me; I can’t let him go to the dogs without another try to keep him straight. Alice ‘ll have to go with me too, at all events for a time. Whether we like it or not, she’ll have to accustom herself to new ways, and I see my way to helping her. I don’t know whether you’ve been told that Mrs. Chattaway’s been living in the house since the others went away. The furniture’s just as you left it; I dare say you’d feel it like going home again.’