The old lady shows her medalsBarrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
General
The old lady shows her medals
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Drama
There is nothing doing at present in the caretaking way for Mrs. Dowey,
our hostess; but this does not damp her, caretaking being only to such
as she an extra financially and a halo socially. If she had the honour
of being served with an income-tax paper she would probably fill in
one of the nasty little compartments with the words, ‘Trade--charring;
Profession (if any)--caretaking.’ This home of hers (from which, to
look after your house, she makes occasionally temporary departures in
great style, escorting a barrow) is in one of those what-care-I streets
that you discover only when you have lost your way; on discovering
them, your duty is to report them to the authorities, who immediately
add them to the map of London. That is why we are now reporting Friday
Street. We shall call it, in the rough sketch drawn for to-morrow’s
press, ‘Street in which the criminal resided’; and you will find Mrs.
Dowey’s home therein marked with a ❌.
Her abode really consists of one room, but she maintains that there
are two; so, rather than argue, let us say that there are two. The
other one has no window, and she could not swish her old skirts in it
without knocking something over; its grandest display is of tin pans
and crockery on top of a dresser which has a lid to it; you have but
to whip off the utensils and raise the lid, and, behold, a bath with
hot and cold. Mrs. Dowey is very proud of this possession, and when she
shows it off, as she does perhaps too frequently, she first signs to
you with closed fist (funny old thing that she is) to approach softly.
She then tiptoes to the dresser and pops off the lid, as if to take the
bath unawares. Then she sucks her lips, and is modest if you have the
grace to do the exclamations.
In the real room is a bed, though that is putting the matter too
briefly. The fair way to begin, if you love Mrs. Dowey, is to say to
her that it is a pity she has no bed. If she is in her best form she
will chuckle, and agree that the want of a bed tries her sore; she
will keep you on the hooks, so to speak, as long as she can; and then,
with that mouse-like movement again, she will suddenly spring the bed
on you. You thought it was a wardrobe, but she brings it down from the
wall; and lo, a bed. There is nothing else in her abode (which we now
see to contain four rooms--kitchen, pantry, bedroom, and bathroom) that
is absolutely a surprise; but it is full of ‘bits,’ every one of which
has been paid ready money for, and gloated over and tended until it has
become part of its owner. Genuine Doweys, the dealers might call them,
though there is probably nothing in the place except the bed that would
fetch half-a-crown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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