A COMEDY OF THE STREETS.
By Clarence Rook.
Illustrated by B. E. Minns.
Very few people knew what really caused the crowd which collected so suddenly one evening in front of a house in the neighbourhood of High Street, Kensington—to be precise, in Lower Phillimore Place—and practically blocked the traffic in that busy thoroughfare.
The crowd itself had no clear notion of the cause of its coming together. For in order to produce a crowd it is by no means necessary that the individuals who are to compose it should have any reason for their assembling more definite than the fact that there is an assembly.
Primarily, however, it was Esther who was the cause of the crowd.
Esther, who you must know is my sister, had been growing quite prosperous. After a year or so of hard and unremunerative work, Esther had gained a position on the staff of a leading ladies' newspaper; and thereafter, week by week, Esther produced pictures of attenuated ladies with crooked forefingers, attired in the height of fashion, and pretending that their waists did not hurt them the least bit.
So, finding herself with an assured income which, if not large, was adequate to her modest needs, Esther determined to quit her dingy lodgings in a Bloomsbury side-street and furnish a dwelling for herself. In this project she was encouraged by her bosom friend Susie, who, being a certificated nurse with a private practice, wanted a comfortable home in the intervals between her cases, and was willing to contribute some furniture and a share of the expenses.
After much search among the advertisements in the newspapers in the Free Library, followed by hurried rushes on her bicycle to the uttermost ends of London, Esther found a house in Lower Phillimore Place of which two floors and the basement were to be let unfurnished. It was precisely the sort of place the two girls wanted, and as the rent was reasonable Esther at once arranged to take it. Esther was to occupy the ground floor, the first floor would be reserved for Susie whenever she required it; in the basement a respectable woman would live, and cook, and sleep. Esther began to look about for the respectable woman.
It was only then that Esther suddenly bethought herself of the extreme danger of sleeping—a solitary and unprotected woman—upon the ground-floor of a London house. For an hour or so the difficulty seemed insurmountable, and it appeared to Esther that she must cancel the agreement. I suggested a dog. But, as Esther at once pointed out, a determined and unscrupulous murderer would not hesitate to poison a dog.
Then I proposed that a respectable married couple should be engaged. Probably, in consideration of living rent free, the woman would do the housework during the day, and the husband would kill murderers at night. Esther considered a moment. The idea appealed to her.
"Why not a policeman and his wife?" said Esther.