Aaron Rodd, DivinerOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
Aaron Rodd, Diviner
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories, English; English fiction -- 20th century
"Sure not," was the confident assent. "He brought his valise. He'th
come to stop."
Rosa almost tiptoed her way out of the shop, dived into the stream of
people and disappeared. It was rather more than half an hour before
her small cousin, with palms outstretched upon the counter, struggling
to sell a one-and-sixpenny brooch to a girl who had a shilling to
spend, glanced up and recognised her. His look of admiration was a
genuine tribute. For a moment the glamour of the transaction upon
which he was engaged, faded.
"My, Rosa, you do look fine!" he exclaimed. "Them clothes must have
cost something!"
She nodded haughtily--a vision of cheap furs, with a black hat from
which flared one great scarlet flower. She carried a bag of some
jingling metal in her hand. Her patent shoes squeaked loudly. She
displayed at least twelve inches of silk-clad limbs, and she diffused
little waves of a perfume carefully selected on account of its
far-reaching qualities. The customer, who knew her by sight, gazed
after her admiringly.
"That's your cousin Rosa, isn't it?" she asked.
The small boy nodded, withdrawing his eyes from the disappearing figure
with reluctance.
"It must be wonderful to earn enough money to dress like that," he
observed enviously. "My, did you see those furs! ... The firtht
ornament Rosa ever bought from me wath one of these brooches," he went
on, reverting to the subject in hand. "Two shillings she paid, my
dear, and eighteenpence I'm asking you, jutht because I like to do
business when the old man ain't here. Maybe you could pay the extra
sixpence next Saturday...."
Rosa swept through the door and descended the two steps into the dingy
sitting-room. In a high-backed chair drawn up to the scanty fire, his
head a little on one side, sat her grandfather, asleep. She passed on
tiptoe through the room, down the narrow passage, and softly turned the
handle of the workshop door. The air was vibrating slightly with the
monotonous hum of a concealed dynamo. Bending low over the board, with
huge magnifying glasses in his eyes, Mr. Levy, with a small, bright
instrument in his hand, was absorbed in some delicate process of
refashioning a little glittering mass, carefully held between the thumb
and forefinger of his left hand. Some instinct told the girl to keep
silence. She watched him breathlessly until the consciousness of her
presence reached him through his finer senses. He raised his knife
from its task and turned swiftly around, touched a knob with his foot
and the dynamo gradually slackened speed and died away.
"You!" he exclaimed, removing the glasses from his eyes.
She saw the stone upon which he had been working transferred swiftly to
his pocket. She was immensely curious. Nevertheless, the personal
element came first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account