Leaning towards him, taking him by the shoulder, she began to shake him
with considerable vigour, considering he was a man, and a big one, and
she was a woman. The effect was, in its way--a grim way, ludicrous. His
hat first tilted forward over his nose, then dropped on to the floor;
his head fell forward over his chest. It seemed as if, if she kept on
shaking him, he would come to pieces. Perceiving this, she stopped,
eyeing him more closely, but still with no show of amusement, rather
with contempt and annoyance.
"What's the matter with you? Are you ill, or is it the liqueurs
and--the other things? Anyhow, I've had enough of it; I'm not going to
have you ill in here. The time has come when we must part. Do you hear?
Wake up!"
He did seem to wake up, in a kind of a fashion. He raised his head with
an effort, looking at her with lack-lustre eyes.
"What is it?"
"What is it? It's the key of the street, the same key you had before."
A thought seemed all at once to occur to her. Stooping, she took off
her right shoe, from it the wad of notes; selecting one, she replaced
the others and the shoe.
"When I first made your acquaintance you had nothing, and rather less.
Now, you've had a good night's rest, a bath, and other luxuries; you've
had good food and drink; you are rigged out in decent clothes from head
to foot; you've not done badly; but here's something else, as a sort of
tit-bit."
She held out the note. He not only paid no heed to it, but seemingly he
had no idea of what it was, or of what she was talking. This time she
did seem to be amused; she laughed right out, as if his grotesque
helplessness tickled her.
"Here, you're a pretty sort; I'll put it in your waistcoat pocket
for you. Mind you, it's a ten-pound note--do you hear, it's a
ten-pound note--for goodness sake do look as if you were trying to
understand--and it's in your waistcoat pocket; I've put it there; take
care, and don't you lose it; you'll want it before you're very much
older."
She slipped the note into his waistcoat pocket without his showing the
slightest sign of interest in what she was doing; he seemed to be
mumbling something, for his lips were moving, but it was impossible to
make out what he said.
"Now then, my funny friend, you'd better pull yourself together; we're
going to part--try to look as if you were sober, if you aren't."
She tapped at the window; the carriage stopped; she opened the door and
descended.
"This way, please." Taking him by the arm she drew him towards her, he
yielding with the old, uncomfortable docility. Somehow he joined her on
the pavement. "You've left your hat behind you, you can't go about
London without a hat." Picking it up from the floor of the carriage,
she placed it on his head. "That's not straight; there, that's better.
What a helpless child it is! Sorry I can't stop, but I've another
engagement; pleased to have met you; glad to have been able to do you a
good turn."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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