After trying a few dozen houses where cards were exhibited in the windows, and finding everything that he did not want, such as musical societies, religious families, new babies on each floor, and high rents and low ceilings, he came to a little house in a street at Dalston, in the front window of which hung a card, and on the card was written ‘First floor to let furnished. Apply within.’
George applied, and the rooms just suited him. Sixteen shillings a week was not dear, certainly, for a bedroom and sitting-room; and though the landlady seemed a little starchy and inclined to be acidulated, she was very clean and respectable-looking.
That evening when Mr. Jabez Duck returned from the City, Miss Georgina informed him that she’d let the first floor—no references, but rent a week in advance—to a Mr. and Mrs. George Smith, a newly married couple.
‘What are they like?’
‘I don’t know,’ answered Georgina, tartly; ‘I’ve only seen the gentleman at present, and he is a gentleman.’
‘Well, my dear, I didn’t expect he was a lady;’ with which remark Mr. Jabez sat down and had his tea, utterly oblivious of the terrible contempt which spread itself over the features of his sister, who despised small jokes of any kind, and her brother’s small jokes most of all.
CHAPTER VII.
A CHAT OVER OLD TIMES.
There is a quiet little road in St. John’s Wood which seems specially to have been designed for ladies and gentlemen of a retiring disposition, who wish for a peaceful arcadia at a convenient distance from trams, omnibuses, and railways. You turn out of the main thoroughfare to find yourself suddenly shut in between a double row of small villas, all well set back in high-walled gardens, and further protected from the gaze of the curious by luxuriant foliage.
The Arcadian inhabitants of this out-of-the-world by-way—a by-way so narrow that a hansom cab can scarcely be driven down it without getting on to the kerb—seem to be slightly suspicious of visitors. The villas are constructed on a system of defence not unpopular during the middle ages. There is no room for a drawbridge or a moat, but this deficiency is supplied by a very high and solid garden gate, which effectually bars the progress of the attacking party—and not only his progress but his view.
Over the tops of the trees in the front garden, if you stand well back on the opposite side, you may catch sight of the tops of the villa chimney-pots, but of the villas themselves you can see nothing.