Beeton,
planting
himself in
front of her.
front of her.
Kipling - Poems
His own ideas of a riotous holiday meant picnicking
on the grass of Green Park with his family, and half a dozen paper bags
full of food.
"Keep to the river," said Dick, and they kept to the river, and the rush
of it was in his ears till they came to Blackfriars Bridge and struck
thence on to the Waterloo Road, Mr. Beeton explaining the beauties of
the scenery as he went on.
"And walking on the other side of the pavement," said he, "unless I'm
much mistaken, is the young woman that used to come to your rooms to
be drawed. I never forgets a face and I never remembers a name, except
paying tenants, 'o course! "
"Stop her," said Dick. "It's Bessie Broke. Tell her I'd like to speak to
her again. Quick, man! "
Mr. Beeton crossed the road under the noses of the omnibuses and
arrested Bessie then on her way northward. She recognised him as the
man in authority who used to glare at her when she passed up Dick's
staircase, and her first impulse was to run.
"Wasn't you Mr. Heldar's model? " said Mr.
Beeton, planting himself in
front of her. "You was. He's on the other side of the road and he'd like
to see you. "
"Why? " said Bessie, faintly. She remembered--indeed had never for long
forgotten--an affair connected with a newly finished picture.
"Because he has asked me to do so, and because he's most particular
blind. "
"Drunk? "
"No. 'Orspital blind. He can't see. That's him over there. "
Dick was leaning against the parapet of the bridge as Mr. Beeton pointed
him out--a stub-bearded, bowed creature wearing a dirty magenta-coloured
neckcloth outside an unbrushed coat. There was nothing to fear from such
an one. Even if he chased her, Bessie thought, he could not follow far.
on the grass of Green Park with his family, and half a dozen paper bags
full of food.
"Keep to the river," said Dick, and they kept to the river, and the rush
of it was in his ears till they came to Blackfriars Bridge and struck
thence on to the Waterloo Road, Mr. Beeton explaining the beauties of
the scenery as he went on.
"And walking on the other side of the pavement," said he, "unless I'm
much mistaken, is the young woman that used to come to your rooms to
be drawed. I never forgets a face and I never remembers a name, except
paying tenants, 'o course! "
"Stop her," said Dick. "It's Bessie Broke. Tell her I'd like to speak to
her again. Quick, man! "
Mr. Beeton crossed the road under the noses of the omnibuses and
arrested Bessie then on her way northward. She recognised him as the
man in authority who used to glare at her when she passed up Dick's
staircase, and her first impulse was to run.
"Wasn't you Mr. Heldar's model? " said Mr.
Beeton, planting himself in
front of her. "You was. He's on the other side of the road and he'd like
to see you. "
"Why? " said Bessie, faintly. She remembered--indeed had never for long
forgotten--an affair connected with a newly finished picture.
"Because he has asked me to do so, and because he's most particular
blind. "
"Drunk? "
"No. 'Orspital blind. He can't see. That's him over there. "
Dick was leaning against the parapet of the bridge as Mr. Beeton pointed
him out--a stub-bearded, bowed creature wearing a dirty magenta-coloured
neckcloth outside an unbrushed coat. There was nothing to fear from such
an one. Even if he chased her, Bessie thought, he could not follow far.
