He had connections with the building trade, because he had worked in all branches of it at various times. It was easy for him to get a bath, a wash-basin, a lavatory pan at cost price. This new object would be installed, and hed make a small profit. This old baths no good to you, hed tell the householder, youd have to pay to get it taken away, The backyard was always full of baths, wash-basins, cisterns, lavatory pans, and tangles of piping. Then, while fixing a gas leak or mending a refrigerator. Dan would say: That old bath of yours, its not up to the standard of the rest, is it? I tell you what. Ill get you another. Just as good as new a factory reject. It got a bit scratched in the enamel, and Ill do it two-thirds of the usual price.
One week I know for a fact Dan earned fifty-odd pounds in this way, over and above his wage and the rents for the house.
Do you know what? Rose said. That Dan, hes just working-dirt like me, and I know his mum and his dad live on the old age pension and nothing over. But hes the new rich. Well, isnt he? I dont envy him his conscience and thats the truth.
For a week the quarrels in the basement were so bad that Jack and Rose spent all their evenings with me. Sometimes Jack went out to lean over the banisters and listen. Still at it, he said, settling himself back on my floor. Rose went down on occasional reconnaissance trips and came back to say: Hammer and tongs. Well, theyve only been married three years, so what can you expect.
Its still about me, said Jack, with satisfaction.
Dont flatter yourself. Its about Bobby Brent. Flo wants to put Oar in a paying nursery, since they cant get a Council nursery, but Dan says a womans place is in the home.
At this we all laughed, even Jack.
The way I look at it is this. When married people quarrel about something, theyre usually quarrelling about something else they dont like to mention, if you understand me. I bet I know whats eating Dan.
I know, too, said Jack. All he wants is to kill me, but he cant understand he wants me for witness for his case.
What case? I said.
I spoke out of turn, said Rose. I promised Flo. Shell tell you in her own good time. And what makes it worse is, Flos flying the red flag this week, and so they cant make it up in bed. So theres no peace for any of us the next three days, the way I reckon it.
Ah, shut up, said Jack.
And whos talking? Prim and proper. Well, who was knocking at my door last night just because Flo set him on?
A couple of days later the quarrels had got so bad that Jack was white-faced, and Rose softened enough to put her arms around him. Poor little boy, poor baby, she said, half-derisive, half-tender, Dont cry. Peace will reign any minute now, youll see.
It was a Sunday morning. Suddenly, from one moment to the next, silence fell downstairs, save for the sound of the radio.
Aurora came in. She was sucking her bottle.
Youre working, she said.
Thats right.
Mommy and Daddy are working, too. She helped herself to a large handful of sweets, exactly as her mother helped herself to cigarettes, with a quick guilty look and a smile of triumph she could not suppress. Theyre working on the bed. Like this. She began bouncing up and down on her stomach on the floor. After a minute she turned her head to watch herself bouncing in the long mirror. Like this, she murmured.
In about an hour Flo appeared. Her eyes were red with past crying, and she was lauding. Why, is Oar with you? she exclaimed in beautiful surprise. But she couldnt keep it up. She sat down, taking a cigarette, and said: Dan and me nearly split up, but now its all over. Dont go, I said to Dan. The trouble with you is, youre not used to a decent woman and her ways. Im not like the women youre used to hes had black, white, green, pink, and yellow, all over the world, being in the Navy, dear. But Im different, see? I said to him: If you shout at me, and use your fists, Ill just go right out and get a job and leave you to manage Oar. Thatd fix you, that would.
Aurora seemed pleased at this possibility. Is my Dad going to look after me, she enquired.
Oh, you, said Flo, slapping at her vaguely. Aurora sucked philosophically at her bottle and listened.
Give the bastards what they want, thats all. Hes a hot one and no mistake. Have it every night if he could. But I play tired. Even when I wouldnt mind. I think to myself, laughing away in the dark: Let the sod wait, do them good, or they take you for granted. I learned that with my first husband, not that he was much good, not a patch on Dan. Dan gets so mad I hear him wriggling and growling away on the other side of the bed. She laughed out loud, like a young girl, clapping her hands to her kneecaps. She noticed Aurora suddenly, and flung her arms out and gathered the child to her. You love your mummy, darling, dont you, sweetheart. Aurora went on sucking at the bottle. Of course you love your mother, said Flo, firmly, letting her go again. She sat loosely, hands dangling, smiling peacefully to herself. Well, and so now Dan and I are already laughing at ourselves for quarrelling. Now, if Rose had any sense
You tell her yourself.
Oh, she wont listen to me. Shes so grumpy these days, I cant say a word. But Dickies Dans brother. Theyre like as two peas, for all that Dickies a civilian, so to speak, just selling things behind a counter and my Dans from the Navy, and that makes a man, say what you like. But I keep telling Rose, when shes listening, if you want a man youve got to go about it proper. She plays cold with Dickie so he gets fed-up. Now you tell her, any real friend of hers would do right and tell her.
She doesnt like talking about it, I said.
She doesnt know anything, let alone talking, I know. Many the times Ive gone to bed early with Dan and left them alone and sent Jack to the pictures, but all I hear is a giggle and a slap, and he goes home with his hands in his pockets. So shes only got herself to blame hes got another woman.
Now although Rose made jokes about Dickies having another girl she believed that he was being as faithful to her as she to him.
Youd better not tell her that, I said.
No. With her ideas shed throw him over, I wouldnt be surprised. Mad. Well, if Rose wants to get him shed better make up her mind to She watched my face. Now youre shocked, she said. Thats right, dear. And she added another juicy image like a chemist dropping a precipitant into a test-tube. Go on, you must have the ump tonight. You are shocked, arent you? And she automatically glanced around for the necessary person to make this particular pleasure really satisfactory. But there was only Aurora. What are you listening for? she demanded, slapping the child across the mouth. Aurora stretched her mouth across her face in a scream, and immediately fell silent, sucking at the bottle.
That girl doesnt know nothing about life. A friend is what she needs to tell her. You dont think that bastard downstairs dve married me if Id hidden it, do you? Not he. They like to know what theyre getting. Beasts. Thats what they are. Theyre not like us at all, dear, not really. She began to roar with laughter, holding both her hips and rocking side to side. Well, its just as well theyre not oh, dont mind me, I like to laugh, and sometimes I think theres nobody but me in the house knows how to, theres you, all working and serious, and theres Rose, like a wet rag, and theres Jack, well, I really dont know, so I like to laugh and make you happy.
At this point Dan bellowed up the stairs for his dinner, and exactly as if I could not have heard him, Flo murmured politely: Well, I can see you want to go on working. I dont blame you, dear, not at ail. She grabbed Aurora by the arm and demanded: What are you doing here stopping the lady from working? Aurora went quite limp, and Flo shook her like a rag doll, saying: Ah, my Lord, and who would have a child? She pulled the unresisting child, who was still sucking at the bottle, along the floor and out of the room. Aurora took her bottle out to grin at me as she was pulled round the side of the door.
Rose came in. What did Flo say about me?
You know what she said.
So what did you say?
I told her to tell you herself.
I suppose you agree with her. Well. Im telling you both that if thats all he cares about me, then he can lump it.
Meanwhile, you havent seen each other in weeks and everyone takes it for granted youll get married.
Well, so I should think. If he doesnt Ill take him to court for breach of promise.
I bet you wouldnt.
I bet I wouldnt either, I wouldnt give him that satisfaction. The trouble with him is, he doesnt know whats good for him. No one with sense likes living in a furnished room when they can have their own home. There he is, sharing a room with two other men, playing poker and never eating proper. Thats really why he cooled off, see? I told him it was time we got married Flo with her dirty mind, she thinks its because I wouldnt give him what he wanted.
Roses unhappiness had now reached the point where she could not rouse herself to go down to the basement to eat. She drank cup after cup of tea in my room, heaping in the sugar and saying it was food. When hunger assailed her so that she really couldnt ignore it, she went out for sixpence-worth of fish and chips. Even in this low condition her natural fastidiousness stayed with her: she was a connoisseur of fish-and-chip shops, knowing every shop within a mile. She would take a bus to a place that used good oil, and fried the fish the way she liked it. But having taken all this trouble, she would push across the packet to me, and say: I dont fancy it.
But youve got to eat sometime.
What for. Id like to know?
She had grown so thin that her skirts were folded at the back with safety-pins, and her face was set permanently into folds of grief, so that she looked like a woman of forty.
Meanwhile, Flo had worked on Dan, who had told Dickie that Rose was pining for him. One dinner time Dickie marched into the jewellers shop with a covered plate of salad and salad cream, which he knew Rose liked, and placed it aggressively on the counter in front of her. He told Dan afterwards he intended this as a peace-offering; but Rose, without looking at him, carefully wrapped plate and food in newspaper, and went to the back of the shop where she slid it into the rubbish bin. She then returned to the counter where Dickie was waiting, and resumed her former position, palms resting downwards, staring past him into the street. At which he swore at her and went out again.