To dance in my sitting-room would be difficult. The few things in
the room adjoining it could be easily pushed against the wall,
however, and quickly Fannie Harris and Mr. Guard began to make it
ready. And while they made ready, Mr. Crimm was invited to sing.
Mr. Crimm is my good friend. I had never known a policeman before I
came to Scarborough Square, but I shall always be glad I know him.
He is a remarkable man. He has been Mrs. Crimm's husband for thirty
years and has his first drink to take.
As I played the opening notes of "Molly, My Darling, There's No One
Like You," Mr. Crimm took his place by the piano. Straight and
important, shoulders back, and a fat right hand laid over a fat left
one, both of which rested just above the belt around his
well-developed waist, he surveyed the silent company with blinking,
twinkling eyes. Mrs. Crimm, struggling between righteous pride in
the possession of so handsome a piece of property as her
blue-uniformed and brass-buttoned husband, and the necessity of
subduing all emotions save that of respect, due to the recent death
of her brother, sat upright in her chair, hands clasped in her lap,
and eyes fastened on the floor. Not until the song was over did she
lift them.
"Molly, My Darling, There's No One Like You" is a piece of music
permitting the making of strange sounds, and when Mr. Crimm sings it
the sounds are stranger. At the third verse he asked all present to
join in the chorus, and the effect was transforming. Bettina,
standing in front of him, eyes uplifted as if entranced, and hands
clasped tightly behind her back, was ready at the first word to join
in, and shrilly her young voice piped an accompaniment to the deep
notes of her official friend. With a nod of his head and a
time-beating movement of both hands, Mr. Crimm began his work of
leadership, and in five minutes every one in the room was around him,
save his wife, who kept her seat, her lips tight and her eyes on the
floor.
As a garment thrown off, the stiffness disappeared, and feet tapped
and heads moved to the rhythmic swing of first one song and then
another, but finally Mr. Crimm wiped his perspiring face and called
for silence.
"It's Archie's time now. Step up, Archie, and tell the ladies and
gentlemen how 'Mary Rode the Goat, She Did.' Shying is out of
fashion. Step lively, Archie. This, ladies and gentlemen--" Mr.
Crimm waved one hand and with the other grasped firmly the collar of
his young friend's coat and drew him forward, "is Mr. Archer Barbee,
who will now entertain you. Begin, Archie. Make your bow and begin."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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