“Bravo, Tom!”
Jimmy at the Hippodrome next week; private address, Whitcomb Mansions.
“Pooh, he’s well off! What’s fifty pounds to him?”
Hullo! Miss Lily—Berlin—Permanent address, Rathbone Place, London, W.
“Well done, Pa! Serve him right, the tramp cyclist!” said Lily, throwing down the paper and jumping out of bed.
Quite a business, her toilet. She was two hours titivating herself. She wanted Pa and Ma to be proud of her, of her successes on the continent. And, when the apprentices came in from practice, you should have seen her walk into the dining-room. A little air of simplicity, her forehead put out for her delighted Pa to kiss, hands all round—“Hullo, girls! Hullo, Daisy!” And she sat down like a lady accustomed to smart restaurants, who does not despise dinner at home, however, with a boiled leg of mutton to recruit her inside after those champagne suppers, those truffled pheasants, that damned continental cooking! She accepted everything, and thought it all very nice, simple life, simple joys, the only ones!
She set a good example to the new apprentices, who eyed her stealthily, instead of eating, for Miss Lily’s presence turned their heads entirely. My! A star like that, a real one! Lily Clifton, the New Zealander on Wheels! And dressed ... dressed like a lady in the front boxes! Cousin Daisy was green with jealousy. Lily talked of her travels, her successes and the crossing, gee! Waves “miles high,” the boat standing on end! Glass Eye Maud devoured her with her one eye, screwed up her fat red cheeks in a fixed and motionless laugh, scared before Lily, who came from over the sea, from countries where savages live. Glass-Eye, in her perturbation, served Lily first. Pa made no objection, asked Lily’s permission to light his pipe: was she sure she didn’t mind smoke? Lord, you never knew, with those ladies! He swelled with pride. If it had been Christmas-time, he would have ordered a pudding, my, a real wedding-cake three feet across! His ideas of grandeur returned, his triumphal tour round the world, the definite extermination of the fat freaks ... if Lily remained with him ...
After dinner, the apprentices retired, to finish sewing some bloomers. Lily approved:
“Bloomers? Very nice ... for a troupe!”
Presently, in the afternoon, the three of them went for a walk: Pa freshly shaven; Ma decked out in her jewelry: Lily did not wear any, “only in the evening when she went into society.” Tottenham Court Road, the Palace, the Hippodrome.... Pa would have liked to write up on his hat: