Liza of LambethMaugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
General
Liza of Lambeth
Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset)
Working class -- England -- Fiction
Then they went into the church, and as they solemnly walked up the
aisle a pale-faced young curate came out of the vestry and down to the
bottom of the chancel. The beer had had a calming effect on their
troubled minds, and both Harry and Sally began to think it rather a
good joke. They smiled on each other, and at those parts of the
service which they thought suggestive violently nudged one another in
the ribs. When the ring had to be produced, Harry fumbled about in
different pockets, and his brother whispered:
'Swop me bob, 'e's gone and lorst it!'
However, all went right, and Sally having carefully pocketed the
certificate, they went out and had another drink to celebrate the
happy event.
In the evening Liza and several friends came into the couple's room,
which they had taken in the same house as Sally had lived in before,
and drank the health of the bride and bridegroom till they thought fit
to retire.
10
It was November. The fine weather had quite gone now, and with it much
of the sweet pleasure of Jim and Liza's love. When they came out at
night on the Embankment they found it cold and dreary; sometimes a
light fog covered the river-banks, and made the lamps glow out dim and
large; a light rain would be falling, which sent a chill into their
very souls; foot passengers came along at rare intervals, holding up
umbrellas, and staring straight in front of them as they hurried along
in the damp and cold; a cab would pass rapidly by, splashing up the
mud on each side. The benches were deserted, except, perhaps, for some
poor homeless wretch who could afford no shelter, and, huddled up in a
corner, with his head buried in his breast, was sleeping heavily, like
a dead man. The wet mud made Liza's skirts cling about her feet, and
the damp would come in and chill her legs and creep up her body, till
she shivered, and for warmth pressed herself close against Jim.
Sometimes they would go into the third-class waiting-rooms at Waterloo
or Charing Cross and sit there, but it was not like the park or the
Embankment on summer nights; they had warmth, but the heat made their
wet clothes steam and smell, and the gas flared in their eyes, and
they hated the people perpetually coming in and out, opening the doors
and letting in a blast of cold air; they hated the noise of the guards
and porters shouting out the departure of the trains, the shrill
whistling of the steam-engine, the hurry and bustle and confusion.
About eleven o'clock, when the trains grew less frequent, they got
some quietness; but then their minds were troubled, and they felt
heavy, sad and miserable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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