Sentimental Tommy | Page 8

mother?" the other that
before turning a corner she always peered round it fearfully. Then they
went back again to the man and he laughed when he saw them, but did
not take his feet off the mantelpiece. There came a time when the man
was always in bed, but still Tommy could not see his face. What he did
see was the man's clothes lying on the large chair just as he had placed
them there when he undressed for the last time. The black coat and
worsted waistcoat which he could take off together were on the seat,
and the light trousers hung over the side, the legs on the hearthrug, with
the red socks still sticking in them: a man without a body.
But the boy had one vivid recollection of how his mother received the
news of his father's death. An old man with a white beard and gentle
ways, who often came to give the invalid physic, was standing at the
bedside, and Tommy and his mother were sitting on the fender. The old
man came to her and said, "It is all over," and put her softly into the big
chair. She covered her face with her hands, and he must have thought

she was crying, for he tried to comfort her. But as soon as he was gone
she rose, with such a queer face, and went on tiptoe to the bed, and
looked intently at her husband, and then she clapped her hands joyously
three times.
At last Tommy fell asleep with his mouth open, which is the most
important thing that has been told of him as yet, and while he slept day
came and restored the furniture that night had stolen. But when the boy
woke he did not even notice the change; his brain traversed the hours it
had lost since he lay down as quickly as you may put on a stopped
clock, and with his first tick he was thinking of nothing but the deceiver
in the back of the bed. He raised his head, but could only see that she
had crawled under the coverlet to escape his wrath. His mother was
asleep. Tommy sat up and peeped over the edge of the bed, then he let
his eyes wander round the room; he was looking for the girl's clothes,
but they were nowhere to be seen. It is distressing to have to tell that
what was in his mind was merely the recovery of his penny. Perhaps as
they were Sunday clothes she had hung them up in the wardrobe? He
slipped on to the floor and crossed to the wardrobe, but not even the
muff could he find. Had she been tired, and gone to bed in them? Very
softly he crawled over his mother, and pulling the coverlet off the
child's face, got the great shock of his childhood.
It was another one!

CHAPTER III
SHOWING HOW TOMMY WAS SUDDENLY TRANSFORMED
INTO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN
It would have fared ill with Mrs. Sandys now, had her standoffishness
to her neighbors been repaid in the same coin, but they were full of
sympathy, especially Shovel's old girl, from whom she had often drawn
back offensively on the stair, but who nevertheless waddled up several
times a day with savory messes, explaining, when Mrs. Sandys sniffed,
that it was not the tapiocar but merely the cup that smelt of gin. When

Tommy returned the cups she noticed not only that they were
suspiciously clean, but that minute particles of the mess were adhering
to his nose and chin (perched there like shipwrecked mariners on a rock,
just out of reach of the devouring element), and after this discovery she
brought two cupfuls at a time. She was an Irish, woman who could
have led the House of Commons, and in walking she seldom raised her
carpet shoes from the ground, perhaps because of her weight, for she
had an expansive figure that bulged in all directions, and there were
always bits of her here and there that she had forgotten to lace. Round
the corner was a delightful eating-house, through whose window you
were allowed to gaze at the great sweating dumplings, and Tommy
thought Shovel's mother was rather like a dumpling that had not been a
complete success. If he ever knew her name he forgot it. Shovel, who
probably had another name also, called her his old girl or his old
woman or his old lady, and it was a sight to see her chasing him across
the street when she was in liquor, and boastful was Shovel of the way
she could lay on, and he was partial to her too, and once when she was
giving it to him pretty strong with