The Nether World | Page 6

Take that!'
The speaker was a girl of sixteen, tall, rather bony, rudely handsome;
the hand with which she struck was large and coarse-fibred, the
muscles that impelled it vigorous. Her dress was that of a work-girl,
unsubstantial, ill-fitting, but of ambitious cut; her hair was very
abundant, and rose upon the back of her head in thick coils, an elegant
fringe depending in front. The fire had made her face scarlet, and in the
lamplight her large eyes glistened with many joys.
First and foremost, Miss Clementina Peckover rejoiced because she had

left work much earlier than usual, and was about to enjoy what she
would have described as a 'blow out.' Secondly, she rejoiced because
her mother, the landlady of the house, was absent for the night, and
consequently she would exercise sole authority over the domestic slave,
Jane Snowdon--that is to say, would indulge to the uttermost her
instincts of cruelty in tormenting a defenceless creature. Finally--a
cause of happiness antecedent to the others, but less vivid in her mind
at this moment--in the next room lay awaiting burial the corpse of Mrs.
Peckover's mother-in-law, whose death six days ago had plunged
mother and daughter into profound delight, partly because they were
relieved at length from making a pretence of humanity to a bed-ridden
old woman, partly owing to the fact that the deceased had left behind
her a sum of seventy-five pounds, exclusive of moneys due from a
burial-club.
'Ah!' exclaimed Miss Peckover (who was affectionately known to her
intimates as 'Clem'), as she watched Jane stagger back from the blow,
and hide her face in silent endurance of pain. 'That's just a morsel to
stay your appetite, my lady! You didn't expect me back 'ome at this
time, did you? You thought as you was goin' to have the kitchen to
yourself when mother went. Ha ha! ho ho!--These sausages is done;
now you clean that fryin'-pan; and if I can find a speck of dirt in it as
big as 'arlf a farden, I'll take you by the 'air of the 'ed an' clean it with
your face, _that's_ what I'll do I Understand? Oh, I mean what I say,
my lady! Me an' you's a-goin' to spend a evenin' together, there's no
two ways about that. Ho ho! he he!'
The frankness of Clem's brutality went far towards redeeming her
character. The exquisite satisfaction with which she viewed Jane's
present misery, the broad joviality with which she gloated over the
prospect of cruelties shortly to be inflicted, put her at once on a par
with the noble savage running wild in woods. Civilisation could bring
no charge against this young woman; it and she had no common
criterion. Who knows but this lust of hers for sanguinary domination
was the natural enough issue of the brutalising serfdom of her
predecessors in the family line of the Peckovers? A thrall suddenly
endowed with authority will assuredly make bitter work for the luckless
creature in the next degree of thraldom.
A cloth was already spread across one end of the deal table, with such

other preparations for a meal as Clem deemed adequate. The
sausages--five in number--she had emptied from the frying-pan directly
on to her plate, and with them all the black rich juice that had exuded in
the process of cooking--particularly rich, owing to its having several
times caught fire and blazed triumphantly. On sitting down and
squaring her comely frame to work, the first thing Clem did was to take
a long draught out of the beer-jug; refreshed thus, she poured the
remaining liquor into a glass. Ready at hand was mustard, made in a
tea-cup; having taken a certain quantity of this condiment on to her
knife, she proceeded to spread each sausage with it from end to end,
patting them in a friendly way as she finished the operation. Next she
sprinkled them with pepper, and after that she constructed a little pile
of salt on the side of the plate, using her fingers to convey it from the
salt-cellar. It remained to cut a thick slice of bread--she held the loaf
pressed to her bosom whilst doing this--and to crush it down well into
the black grease beside the sausages; then Clem was ready to begin.
For five minutes she fed heartily, showing really remarkable skill in
conveying pieces of sausage to her mouth by means of the knife alone.
Finding it necessary to breathe at last, she looked round at Jane. The
hand-maiden was on her knees near the fire, scrubbing very hard at the
pan with successive pieces of newspaper. It was a sight to increase the
gusto of Clem's meal, but of a sudden there came into the girl's mind a
yet more delightful thought. I have mentioned