 Chapter 1 of People Like That This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org People Like That by Kate Langley Bosher Chapter 1 One of the advantages of being an unrequired person of 26, with an income sufficient for necessities, is the right of choice as to a home locality. I am that sort of person, and, having exercised said right, I am now living in Scarborough Square. To my friends and relatives, it is amazing, inexplicable, and beyond understanding that I should wish to live here. I do not try to make them understand, and therein lies grievance against me. Because of my failure to explain what they are pleased to call a peculiar decision on my part, I am addressing the subject of heated criticism. It will soon stop. What a person does or doesn't do is of little importance to more than three or four people. By Christmas my foolishness will have ceased to cause comment, ceased to interest those to whom it doesn't matter really, where or how I live. I like living in Scarborough Square very much. After many years spent in the homes of others, I am now the head of half a house, the whole of which is mine. And even though it is situated on the last square of respectability, in a part of the town long forgotten by the descendants of its former residents, I am filled with a sense of proprietorship that is warm and comforting, and already I have learned to love it, this nice old-fashioned house in which I live. Until very recently, Scarborough Square was only a name. There had been no reason to visit it, and had I ventured to it, I would have seen little save a tiny park bounded on four sides by houses of shabby gentility, for the most part detached, and of a style of architecture long since surrendered to more undesirable designs. The park is, but in open space, whose tragedy trees and stunted shrubs and dusty grass add dejection to the atmosphere of shrinking respectability, which the neighbourhood still makes efforts to maintain. But that, too, I have learned to love, for I see in it that which I never noticed in the large and handsome parks uptown. As a place of residence, this section of the city I am just beginning to know has become very interesting to me. No one of importance lives near it, and the occupants of its houses, realising their social submergence and pecuniary importance, have too long existed in the protection of obscurity to venture into the publicity which civic attention necessitates, and on first acquaintance it is not attractive. I agree with my friends in that. I did not come here because I thought it was an attractive place in which to live. They cannot say, however, even my most protesting friends, that I am not living in a perfectly proper neighbourhood. The front of my house faces, beyond the discouraged little park, a strata of streets which unfold from lessening degrees of dreariness and dinginess to ever-increasing expansiveness and unashamed architectural extravagances to the summit of residential striving called, for impressiveness, the Avenue. But behind it is a section of the city of which I am as ignorant as if it were in the depths of the sea or the wilds of premival forest. I have travelled much, but I do not know the city wherein I live. I know but a part of it, the pretty part. There was something Mrs. Mundy wanted to say to me tonight, and did not say. I love the dear soul. I could not live here without her, could not learn what I am learning without her help and sympathy and loyalty. But at times I wish she were a bit less fond of chatting. She is greatly puzzled. She too cannot understand why I have come to Scarborough Square to live. And I am quite certain she thinks it is strange I do not tell her. How can I tell that of which I am not sure myself? That is clearly and definitely sure. I am not trying to be sure. It is enough that I am here free to come and go as I choose to plan my day as I wish to have time for the things I once had no time for. And why must there always be explanations and reasons and justifications for one's acts? The daily realisation each morning on a waking that the day is mine, that there are no customs with which to comply, no regulations to follow, no conventions to be conformed to, at the end of two weeks, still stirs and thrills and aws me a little. And I am constantly afraid it is not true that I am here to stay. And then again, with something of fear and shrinking and uncertainty, I realise my bridges are burned and I must stay. It is pleased you are with your rooms, I hope, Miss Dandridge. Hands on her hips, Mrs. Mundy had looked somewhat anxiously at me before going out. If it is a home-looking place you are after, you have got it. But when you first come down to Scarborough Square, it made me feel queer inside to think of your living here, really living. If you think you can be satisfied, I am sure I can be satisfied. Why not? I smiled and, going over to the window, straight in the curtain which had caught and twisted a fern leaf growing in its box. I am a perfectly unencumbered human being who, but an unencumbered woman, ain't much of a human being. Mrs. Mundy dropped the afternoon paper she had brought up and stooped to get it. I mean, a woman is made for incumbrances and if she don't have any, she hesitated and looked around the room with its simple furnishings, its firelight and lamp light, its many books and few pictures, its rugs and desk and tables, the gifts of other days and presently she spoke again. Being you like so to look out the windows, it's well this house has two front rooms opening into each other. If it's comfortable and convenient that you want to be, you're certainly that, but comforts and conveniences don't keep you company exactly. I don't want company yet. You and Bettina are all I need. I haven't said I was to live here a thousand years or that I wouldn't get tired of myself in less time, but until I do, there was a ring at the front doorbell and Mrs. Mundy went to answer it. The puzzled look I often saw in her eyes when talking to me still filled them, but she said nothing more except good night and when I heard her footsteps in the hall below, I went to the door and locked it. This new privacy, this sense of freedom from unescapable interruption was still so precious that though an unnecessary precaution, I turned the key that I might feel perfectly sure of quiet hours ahead and at my sigh of satisfaction I laughed. Going into my bedroom, which adjoined my sitting room, I hunked in the closet, the coat I had left on a chair, put away my hat and gloves, and again looked around, as if they were still strange, the white bed and bureau, the wash rugs, the muslin curtains, the many contrasts to former furnishings, and again I sighed contentedly. There were mine. The house I'm now living in is indeed an old-fashioned one, but well-built and of admirable design. The rooms are few, only eight in all, and four of them I have taken for myself, the upper four. The lower floor is occupied by Mrs. Mundy and Bettina, her little granddaughter. When I first saw the house, its condition was discouraging. Not for some time had it been occupied, and repairs of all kinds were needed. To get it in order gave me a strange joy, and the weeks in which it was being painted and papered and beautified with modern necessities, where of an interest only a person, a woman person, can feel, who has never had a home of her own before. When everything was finished, the furnishings in place, and I established, I knew what I no longer made effort to deny to myself, that I was doing a daring thing. I was taking chances in a venture I was still afraid to face. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of People Like That This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org People Like That by Kate Langley-Bosher Chapter 2 Kitty came to see me yesterday. Her modification at my living in Scarborough Square is poignant. Not since she learned of my doing-serve, has her amazement, her incredulity, her indignation and her sentiment, lessened in the least. But her curiosity is great, and her affection sincere. And yesterday she yielded to both. She was on her wedding journey, when I left the house in which for many years we had lived together. And, knowing it would spoil her trip, did I tell of what I had done, I did not tell. Two days ago she got back, and over the telephone I gave her my new address. But I can't understand. During most of her visit, Kitty was crying. She cries easily and well. I can't take it and can't even glimpse why you want to live in such a horrid old place. It's awful. Oh no, it isn't. It's a very nice place. Look how the sun comes through those little panes of glass in those deep windows and chirps all over the floor. I never knew before how much company sunshine could be, how many different things it could do, until I came to Scarborough Square. This is a very interesting place, Kitty. It's fearful, Kitty shuddered. The sun shines much better on the avenue, and you might as well be dead as live in this part of the town. When people ask me where you are, I'm ashamed to tell them. I laughed. Don't tell them if the telling mortifies you. Those who object to visiting me in my new home will soon forget I'm living. Those to whom it does not matter where I live will find where I am without asking you. I wouldn't bother. But what must I say when people ask me why you've come down here? Why you've made this awful change from living among the best people to living among these? I don't know what they are. Nobody knows. They are perfectly good people. I took a pin out of Kitty's hat and tried the latter at a different angle. The man on the corner is named Crimm. He's a policeman. The girl next door makes cigarettes and a friend around the corner works at the Nottingham Overall Factory. The cigarette girl has a burl who walks home with her every evening. He's delicate and can't take a job indoors. Just at present he's an assistant to the keeper of Cherry Hill Park. Kitty stared at me as if not sure she heard a right. The tears in her big blue eyes disappeared and into them came incredulity. Do you know them? The cigarette girl and the overall girl and the policeman? Her voice was thin with dismay and unbelief. Do you really know people like that? I do. I laughed in the puzzled and protesting face, kissed it. To every sort of people, other people not of their sort are people like that. Our customs and characteristics and habits of thought and manner of life separate us into our particular groups. But in many ways all people are dreadfully alike, Kitty. To the little cigarette girl you are a person like that. Do you ever wonder what she thought of you? Why should I wonder? It doesn't matter what she thinks. I don't know her, never will know her. I can't understand why you want to know her, to know people who... I want to know all sorts of people. Again I tilted Kitty's hat, held her off so as to get a better effect. You see, I wondered sometimes what they thought of us. These people who haven't had our chance. Points of view always interest me. What difference does it make what they think? You're the queerest person I've ever known. You aren't very religious. You never did go to church as much as I did. Are you going in for slums? I am not. I wouldn't be a success at slumming. I'm not going in for anything except... except what? My dear Kitty. I picked up the handkerchief she had dropped and put it on the table. I wouldn't try to understand if I were you, why people do things. Usually it's because they have to or because they want to and occasionally there are other reasons. I used to wonder, for instance, why certain people married each other. Often now as I watch husbands and wives together I still wonder if unmarried they would select each other again. I suppose you went to the Bertrand's dinner dance last night. I went but I wish I hadn't. Billy didn't want to go and we came away as soon as we could. Everybody asked about you. I haven't seen anyone yet who doesn't think it very strange that you don't live with me. That beautiful little Marie Antoinette suite on the third floor is all fixed for you and you could use the automobile as much as you choose. It's wicked and cruel in you to do like this and not live with me. It looks so peculiar. I nodded in the eyes as blue as a baby's but a person who isn't peculiar isn't much of a person. You see, I don't care for things which are already fixed for me. I like to do my own fixing and I don't want to live in anybody else's home, not even yours, though you are dear to want me. I am grateful but I prefer to live here. My present income would make an undignified affair of life among the friends of other days. I'd feel continually as if I were overbought and holding on to a slippery plank. Down here I'm independent. I have enough for my needs and something to give. That's a good looking hat you have on. Did you get it in Paris? Kitty shook her head. New York. Otherwise she ignored my question. Hats usually interested her. She talked well concerning them but today she would not be diverted from more insistent subjects. It must have cost a good deal to fix up this old house. Anywhere else it would look very well. Her eyes were missing no detail. You'd make a pigsty pretty but it takes money. Everything takes money. I sold two or three pieces of Aunt Matilda's jewellery for enough to put the house in order. She expected me to sell what I did not wish to keep and her will was a note to that effect. She had more jewellery than any human being I ever saw. Into Kitty's face came dawning understanding. It was the only way she could leave you any off. Your father's money. I nodded. Not until after her death did I understand why she used to take all of your father's gifts in jewellery. I know now. It was a good investment. I wish she had bought twice as much. She had so little else to leave you. Kitty was looking at me speculatively. How on earth are you going to live on a thousand dollars a year? Our servants cost us twice that. Billy says it's awful but it is if you can't afford it. You can. I believe all people ought to spend every dollar they can afford and not a cent they can't. That's what I do. Aunt Mettilda thought I was impractical but I'm fearfully prudent. I live within my income and I've deposited with a trust company so I can't spend it. A sum of money quite large enough to care for me through a spell of illness in the greediest of hospitals if I should be ill. And if I should die I'm prepared for all expenses. It's a mistake to think I don't look ahead. I thought once of having a stone put up in the cemetery so as to be sure I had not forgotten anything I can wait. Kitty, still staring at me, got up. I never expect to understand you, neither does father, this mortified to death about your coming down here to live. He knows people are talking. So do I and we don't know what to say. Oh, people always talk and don't say anything. No one escapes criticism. It's human pastime to indulge in it. To prefer Scarborough Square to the avenue may be queer but at present I do prefer it. That's why I'm here. You can say that if you choose. You've got no business preferring it. Kitty snapped the buttons of her glove with tearful emphasis. Mrs. Jameson said last night that a person with eyes and eyelashes like yours had no right to live as you are living with just an old woman to do things for you. She came down to see why you were here but you wouldn't tell her. She can't understand any more than I can. I kissed Kitty goodbye but I did not try to make her understand. I no longer try to make people understand things. Many of them can't. Kitty is a dear child, adorably blue-eyed and pink-cheeked and possessed of an amount of worldly wisdom that is always amazing and at times distressing but much that interests me has so far never interested her. Refusing to study she has little education but she has travelled a good deal speaks excellent French, dances perfectly, dresses admirably and has charming manners when she wishes. I love her very much but I no longer feel it is my duty to live with her. I'm not living in Scarborough Square because I feel it is my duty to live here. Thank Heaven. I don't have to tell anyone why I'm here. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of People Like That This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org People Like That by Kate Langley-Warsher Chapter 3 Kitty's mother had been dead only a year when Aunt Matilda, who had adopted me several years earlier on the death of my parents, married her father. I was twelve and Kitty ate much took place and with canny care I tried to shield her from the severity of Aunt Matilda's system in rearing a child. I had been reared by it. I owe much to Aunt Matilda. She sent me to good schools, to a good college, took me with her on most of her trips abroad and a twenty presented me to society but she never knew me, never in the least understood the hunger in my heart for what it was not in her power to give. I never told her there was hunger in my heart. I rarely told her of anything she could not see for herself. In childhood I had learned the fixedness of her ideas, the rigidity of her type of mind, the relentlessness of her will and that independence on my part survived was due to sturdy stubbornness, to refusal to be dominated and an incapacity for subjection but this too she failed to understand that I would not marry as she wished was a grievous blow to her. I had no desire to marry and it was when refusing to do so that certain realizations came to me sharply and all the more acutely because I had so long been seemingly indifferent to them. On the morning following the night in which I had faced frankly undeniable facts I went to Aunt Matilda's room and told her I could no longer be dependent told her of my purpose to earn my own living. I was strong, healthy, well educated there was no reason why I should not do what other women were doing. As I talked her amazement and indignation deepened into anger and had I been a child I would undoubtedly have been punished for my impertinence and audacity in daring to desire to go into the world to earn when there was no necessity for my earning. Socially a woman could be autocratic I was told but in all things else she would be dependent on the stronger sex but there is no stronger sex person for me to be dependent on even where I am willing to depend I said and made efforts to keep back what I must not say to her but surely would have said to others. For years I had been the recipient of her bounty the object of her care and she still thought of me as something to be protected that I should prefer to work prefer to take my place in the world of women workers was beyond her grasp. Mr. Chessmont understood when I married him it is part of our marriage contract that you were to have the same advantages as his daughter he has very willingly given you these if you no longer care to accept his protection you can marry opportunities such as come to few girls have come to you a home of your own is yours for the taking in my day but this is not your day I bit my lip when Aunt Matilda's face got a certain shade of red and her breath came short and quick I was uneasy the doctor had warned us of the seriousness of her condition she was pitifully afraid of death it was the only thing she was afraid of and death might come at any time to prevent excitement there must be with her no discussion and as far as possible no opposition to her will your day and mine are very far apart I made effort to speak quietly women no longer have to be adjuncts to men because they don't know how to be anything else they can stand up now by themselves conditions have forced them to face life much more face fiddlesticks Aunt Matilda's hands made an impatient gesture women have no business doing what many of them are doing today they are forgetting the place to which they are appointed by their creator but even if you were at liberty to carry out your silly ideas what could you do how could you earn your living you play well, paint a little read books that do you know good and hardly enough of the new novels to discuss them all the sociological stuff those scientific things I see in your room are absurd for a woman to bother with men dislike women who think too much and know too much you're well educated and clever enough but what could you do if you were suddenly left without means of support I don't know what I could do it's what I want to find out half of my life has been spent in school and college and during these years I was taught little that would be a practical service in case of need I'd like to use part of my time trying to make educators understand they don't educate for cultural purposes for acquiring knowledge of facts their system may be admirable but for the pursuit of a happy livelihood I stopped Aunt Matilda was looking at me as if I were suffering from an attack of some kind marriage to her was the divinely arranged destiny for a woman and she had neither patience nor sympathy with my refusal to accept the opportunity that was mine to fulfill the destiny of my sex and at the same time become the wife of the man she had long wished me to marry the power of money was dear to her she understood it well and my failure to appreciate it properly was peculiarly exasperating to her discussion was useless it never got farther than where it started if I said that which I wanted much to say it would merely mean hearing again what I did not want to hear concerning the pursuit of a happy livelihood we were not apt to agree for a half minute longer I hesitated should I make the issue now or wait until there had been time for her to realize I meant what I said before I could speak she did that which I had never seen her do before she burst into tears you must never mention such a thing as this again her words came stumblingly under usually firm and strong hands trembled badly with my health in its present condition I couldn't get on without you you're all I have to really love and I need you don't you see what you have done you have made me ill, ill she was strangely upset and in her eyes was a confused and frightened look that was new to them and quickly I went toward her but she motioned me away gave me my medicine and don't you ever speak of such a thing again such a thing as you've just spoken of you have always been beyond my comprehension she swallowed the medicine I brought her in nervous gulls the tears running down her face as they might have done down a child but she would not let me do anything for her insisting only that she wanted to be quiet seeing it was best to leave her I went to my room and locked the door and for hours I fought the hardest fight of my life the one weapon she knew she could use effectively she had used if she needed me I could not leave her but her complete self-reliance made it difficult to feel that anyone was necessary to her I was indignant at the way she had treated me I was not a child to be disposed of and yet of my future she was disposing as though it were a thing that could be tied to a string and untied it will where she well and strong I would take matters in my own hands and make the break surely I could do something I had no earning capacity but other women had made their way and I could make mine if she were perfectly well but she was not well through those first hours and through most of the hours of the night that followed the knowledge of the insidious disease that was hers was the high hard wall against which I struck at every turn of thought at every possibility at which I grasped on a new day I knew I must not go away it was not easy to surrender always my two selves are fighting and I wanted much to know more of life than I could know in the costly shelter controlled by custom and convention wherein I lived I had long been looking through stained glass I was restless to get out and see clearly to know all sorts of people all conditions of life and the chance had seemed within my grasp and now it must be given up there are times when I'm heedless of results when I'm daring and audacious and count no cost but that is only where I alone am concerned when it comes to making decisions which affect others I am a coward I lack the courage to have my own way at the expense of someone else and though through the night I protested stormily if inwardly that I was not meant for gilded cages but for contact for encounter I knew I should yield in the end the next day I told her I would not go away she said nothing safe she hardly thought I had entirely lost my senses but the thing I'm glad is to remember since her death is the look that came into her eyes when I told her for two years longer I lived with her years for her of practical invalidism and for me of opportunity to do for her what she had never permitted me to do before two weeks after Kitty's marriage she died suddenly and at times I still shiver with the cold sclamminess that came over me as I stood by her in her last sleep and realized my aloneness in the world my parents had died in my early childhood I had no brothers or sisters no near relatives save an uncle who lived abroad and some cousins here in town Mr. Chesmont was very kind but I could not continue to accept what he had willingly given his wife's adopted child and Kitty no longer needed me it is a fearful feeling the sense of belonging to no one of having no one belonging to you lest it overwhelm me I went at once to work upon the house in Scarborough Square left me by Aunt Matilda together with an annuity of a thousand dollars already it means much to me for a while at least it is a heaven, a shelter, a home what it may prove I have been thinking much today of Aunt Matilda perhaps it is because Selwyn was here last night she was afraid I would marry him End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of People Like That This is a LibriBox recording All LibriBox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriBox.org People Like That by Kate Langley-Bosher Chapter 4 I did not tell Selwyn I was coming to Scarborough Square to live I told no one the day after I reached here I sent him a note giving him my new address His answer was short and stiff he was leaving town on a business trip and would see me on his return he wrote and as I read what was not written between what was I was glad he was going away it would give him time to cool off I am beyond Selwyn's comprehension we should not be friends we are so apart in many matters but compatible people must find life dull Selwyn and I are never dull When he first called I was out and last night he called again as Mrs. Mundy with his coat and hat closed the door behind her and he held out his hand well he looked at me but in his eyes was no smiling well I shook hands and smiled for a half moment we said nothing and frowningly he turned away always he radiated the security that comes of fixed position a past without challenge a future provided for but tonight I was conscious only of the quiet excellence of his clothes his physical well-being the unescapableness of his eyes and the cut of his chin he is a most determined person so am I which perhaps accounts for a rather stormy friendship don't you think I have a very nice home I took my seat in a corner of the big chins covered sofa in front of the fire and close to the long table with its lighted lamp and books and magazines and motioned him to sit down I am entirely fixed I hope you like this room I love it I've never had one of my very own before it's very pretty Selwyn took a seat without looking around he did not know whether it was pretty or not he was not at all interested in the room for a moment he looked at me with eyes narrowed and his forehead ridged in tiny perpendicular folds presently he leaned forward his hands between his knees and fingers interlocked how long do you propose to stay down here? he asked I really do not know I thought you were going to congratulate me upon living the life I want to live I do until you get this thing out of your system what thing? I too leaned forward the tone of his voice made something in me flare what thing? I repeated Selwyn's shoulder shrugged slightly he sat up then leaned back his hands in his pockets why discuss it? you've long wanted to do something of this sort until it was done you would never be content what do you want to do? I doubt if you know yourself are you slumming? uplifting? I am not I am neither a slumber nor an uplifter a slumber helps I am just looking on I threw the cushion behind me to the other end of the sofa I thought it might be interesting to see for myself some of the causes which produce conditions I've read a good deal but one doesn't exactly sense things by reading I want to see and after you see Selwyn made an impatient movement with his hand a thousand years from now humanity may get results from scientific management in social organization but most of your present day methods are about as practical as trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon or to pick a posy out of swamp grass what do you know of present day methods? very little beating the air doesn't interest me most people seem to forget the processes of nature seem to imagine that certain things can be brought to pass quickly which can only be accomplished slowly from the first struggle of the human race to stand upright to articulate to find food, to strike fire to paddle in water, to wear covering to forage, explore what is the matter? nothing I leaned back in the corner of the sofa my hands, palms upward in my lap, my eyes on them that he might not be there smiling I was just wondering what that had to do with certain present day conditions certain injustices and inequalities certain it explains them to some extent from the earliest days of dawning thought from the first efforts at self-expression, humanity has grouped itself not only into families tribes, communities, nations or what you will but in each of these divisions there have ever been subdivisions ignorance and knowledge, strength and weakness power and incapacity find their level, rise or fall according to their proper place do you have any little dreams of making all human beings after one pattern I haven't it would be as uninteresting as possible but it is queer what is queer Selwyn stooped forward and broke a lump of coal from which sprang blazing reds and curling blues of flame why did you stop I was thinking to a queer you should know so much of the history of the human race and so little of its life today as a shrugger you stand off for the love of heaven don't let's get on that with swift movement he took a cigar from one pocket a match case from another may I smoke he asked irritably and as I nodded he struck a match and held it to the cigar in his mouth then threw it in the fire presently he looked at me why didn't you tell me you were coming here for a while it would have meant more argument you would not have approved I most assuredly would not but that would have made no difference my disapproval would not have prevented no I should have come of course but I was tired and useless discussion does no good you would have said again the same old things we've said so often and I did not want to say them or hear them one of the reasons why I came down here was to talk with people who weren't born with made up minds and who don't have high walls around their homes there are times when I would like to put them around you if you were mine I'd do it no you wouldn't you know perfectly well what I would do with walls that is the kind you think should be around a woman but we won't get on that either were you ever in Scarborough Square before Selwyn nodded and looked nodded me with a smoke from a cigar my grandfather used to live on the opposite side of the square and as a kid I was brought occasionally to see him I barely remember him he died 30 years ago it's difficult to imagine this was once the fashionable part of the city and that gorgeous parties and balls I sat upright and laughed I went to a party last night it was a wonderful party you did what Selwyn's cigar was held suspended on its way to his lips whose party where was it two doors from here the girl who gave it or rather to whom it was given is named Bryce Evelyn Bryce she's a friend of Mrs. Mundy's and is a printer I never knew a girl printer until I came down here Selwyn's look of amazed disapprobation had its usual effect I hadn't intended to mention the party and instantly I went into its details all kinds of people were at it and every woman had on a dress which entirely covered her when I was a child I had ordered a person named Wyman who used to give performances in which all sorts of unexpected things happened last night was a sort of Wyman night I did not know you were going to parties Selwyn's tone was curt I am not do your sort my face flushed I said this girl was a printer I should have said she used to be two years ago she was caught in some machinery at a place where she worked and has never been able to stand up since on her birthday her friends give her a party that she may have a bit of brightness I went over to play that they might dance she is fond of music and an old piano recently been given her by by someone interested in her for a moment there was silence then throwing a cigar in the fire Selwyn got up and stood looking down at me in his eyes was strange worry and undressed I beg your pardon he bit his lips I have been pretty ragged of late and I am always thoughtless for two weeks I have seen no one that is no friend of yours or mine who hasn't asked me why you have done so inexplicable a thing as to leave everybody you know and go into a part of the town where you know nobody and where it's because I want to know all sorts of people something in Selwyn's face stopped me and getting up from the sofa I went over to the window and raced it slightly my heart was pounding I could laugh away the questions of others and ignore their comments but with Selwyn this would be impossible an overwhelming sense of distance and separation came over me demoralizingly as I pretended to rearrange the curtain and for a moment words would not come I knew of course that Selwyn had neither patience nor sympathy with my desire to know more of life than I could learn in the particular world into which I had been born but the keener realization tonight made between us a wide and separating gulf I felt suddenly alone and uncertain and dispirited and afraid in our love of books of digging deep into certain subjects of historic questing and speculative discussions we are closely sympathetic but in many viewpoints we are as apart as the poles perhaps we will always be Selwyn by heritage and training and natural inclination is conventional and conservative I am not to walk in beaten tracks is not easy for me I want to explore for myself he thinks a woman has no business in bypass our opposing beliefs do not make for placid friendship it is Selwyn's indifference to life to its problems and struggles and many sidedness that makes me at times impatient with him beyond restraint in his profession he is successful his ambition makes him work in the weariness of things of the unworth-wildness of human effort the futility of striving the emptiness of achievement possesses him frequently and in his dark days he placed the penalty of his points of view if only he could see, could understand I turned from the window and again sat down in my corner of the sofa and motioned him to take his seat don't let's argue tonight I am pretty tired and argument would do no good we'd just say things we shouldn't you said just now you doubted if you knew why I was here I may not be sure of all my reasons but one of them is I wanted to get away from there my hand made motion in a vague direction intended for my former neighbourhood do you find this section of the city a satisfactory change Selwyn's tone was ironic he looked for a moment into the eyes I had raised to his then turned away and hands in his pockets began to walk up and down the room when he spoke again his voice had changed don't mind anything I say tonight I shouldn't have come I'm a bit raw yet that you should have done this without telling me you have a right to do as you choose of course only besides getting away from your own life were there other reasons we definite once into my face came surge of colour and turning I put off the light in the lamp behind me when one is in a parade one can't see what it looks like very often doesn't understand where it is going I want to see the one I was in see from the sidewalk the kind of human beings who are in it and what they are doing with their time and energies and opportunities and knowledge and preparedness so with all the things that make their position in life a more responsible one than the people down here was it necessary to come to Scarborough square to watch your parade you can stand off anywhere but I don't want just to stand off I want to see with the eyes of the people who look at us the people who don't approve of us though they envious we are so certain they are a hard lot to deal with to do for to make anything of these people we don't know say from charity contact perhaps that I have sometimes wondered if they ever despair of us think we too are pretty hopeless and hard to to wake up and do you imagine the opinions and conclusions of uneducated untrained, unthinking people will give you light concerning the valuation of your class it matters little what they think they don't think you know many of these people of whose mental machinery you are so sure I smiled at the eyes which would not smile into mine know them personally I mean I do not Selwyn Stone was irritable my business dealings with them have not inspired desire for a closer acquaintance to get as much money as possible from the men who employ them and given return as little work as they can is the creed of most of them you can do nothing with people like that I know them better than you will ever know them as a corporation attorney yes as a division of the human race as working people you know them as beings much more like yourself than you imagine you don't Selwyn again stopped you'd hardly expect me to find them congenial the beings you refer to I would not I laughed they are generations removed from you in education and culture in many of the things essential to you but some of them see more clearly than you both need to understand you owe each other something but how are you going to find out what it is see from each other's point of view and as you know each other better unless for the love of heaven get rid of such nonsense that particular kind of sentiment has gone to seed every sane man recognizes certain obligations to his fellow man every normal one tries to pay them but all this wrought about bringing better relations to pass between masters and men through familiarity through putting people in places they are not fitted to fill is idle dreaming based on ignorance of human nature to give a man what he doesn't earn is to do him an injury most men win their wards they are entitled to you are a visionist you always have been and I'm always going to be life would hardly be enjoyable where it not for dreaming hoping believing I could stand any loss better than that of my faith in humankind I sat upright my hands locked in my lap I'm not here to do things for the people you have so little patience with I told you I wanted to see what sort of people we are you are perfectly certain those who live in scarborough squares don't make a success of life do you think we do again selvin stopped stared at me but before he could answer a queer curdling smothered sound reached us faintly from the street below a cry low yet clear and anguished followed then a fall and hurrying footsteps and then silence selvin sprang to the window and opened it my god he said his face was white what was that end of chapter four chapter five of people like that this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org people like that by Kate Langley Bosher chapter five I was out of the door before selvin had left the window quickly he followed me however and on the front porch where mrs. Mundy was already standing we stood for a half moment looking up and down the street the small arc of the light made by the corner gas lamp lessened but little of the darkness of the seemingly deserted street and for a while we could distinguish nothing save the shadows cast by the light then I saw Selvin start go inside he was a steady self again it is too cold out here I think someone has been hurt go in I ran in mrs. Mundy's room and to her wardrobe getting a coat and an old cape I threw the latter over my shoulders and coming back to the porch went down its steps and across the street to where mrs. Mundy and Selvin standing over a young woman who stirred as they came up put this on I threw the coat to mrs. Mundy who is it I don't know mrs. Mundy knelt on the ground are you hurt she asked there that's better with skillful movement she helped the girl who seemed dazed to steady herself after the latter sat up she put her face and brushed back her hair where am I has he gone her face was dropped in her hands if you just kill me and end it end it who hurt you Selvin's voice was the quiet one that was ever his when something was to be done and leaning over her he took the girl by the arm and lifted her to her feet can you tell what has happened he looked at mrs. Mundy it's too cold out here for her to stand she's pretty faint still bring her over to me mrs. Mundy put her coat around the shivering girl and slipping her hand through one arm motioned Selvin to take hold of the other run ahead she nodded to me and fix up a dose of that aromatic spirits of ammonia what's on the second shelf of the closet in my bedroom and pulled the couch up to the fire day's idly and dragging her feet as if they were powerless to move the girl entered the warm and cheerful room but at her entrance understanding seemed to give her strength with a shattering shivering in drawing breath she drew back and leaned against the door frame I must go I can't come in there I'm better now I must go you can't go Selvin's voice was decisive you'll be all right presently but you'll have to to rest first firmly she was led to the couch and pushed upon it taking the medicine from my hands he held it to her lips take this hesitating partly defiant partly afraid the girl raised her eyes to his then with hand that shook badly she took the glass and drank part of its contents the rest was spilled in her lap if it were prosic acid I'd be glad to drink it the voice was bitter and again the eyes pale yet burning were raised to his and in them was what seemed frightened but guarded recognition quickly she dropped them and glanced around the room as though looking for escape and again her hands made convulsive pressure again she started to get up I must go I tell you I can't stay here very well Mrs. Mundy looked towards Selvin and away from me when you are steady you can go Mr. Thorn will telephone for a cab and I will take you home the girl's face became the pallor that frightens and on either side of her a hand was dug in the couch on which she was sitting I'm all right now I don't want a cab I just want to go and by myself please let me go the last words were lost in a sob and coming close to her I sat beside her and putting my hand on her face turned it slightly that I might better see the big black bruise on her forehead partly hidden by the loose dark curls which fell across it her hair was short and thick and parted on the side giving her a youthful boyish look that was an odd contrast to the sudden terror in her eyes and for the first time I saw how slight and frail she was so that about her which baffled and puzzled me and which I could not analyse she wore no hat and the red scarf around her neck was the only touch of colour in her otherwise dark dress the lips of her large sweet sensuous mouth was as colourless as her face you have been hurt I put my hand on her trembling once did someone strike you or did you fall she shook her head and drew her hands away I wasn't hurt I slipped and fell and struck my head on the pavement don't let anybody telephone I can go alone please, please let me go I must go, I can't stay here but you mustn't go alone I turned to Selwyn Mr. Thorn will go with you do you live far from here not very it's close enough for me to go by myself he mustn't go with me the words came stumblingly and again I saw the quick frightened look she gave Selwyn a look in which was indecision and appeal as well as fear and I saw too that his face flushed as he turned away with quick movement the girl got up from her throat came a sound hysterical and choking and putting her hand to it she looked first at me and then at Mrs. Mundy but at Selwyn she did not look again I'm going thank you for letting me come in blindly she staggered to the door her hands outstretched as if to feel what she could not see at it she turned and in her face was that which keeps me awake at night which haunts and hurts and seems to be crying to me to do something which I know not what to do you poor child I started to word her you must not go alone but before I could reach her she fell in a heap at the door and as one dead she lay limp and white and piteously pretty on the floor end of chapter 5 chapter 6 of people like that this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org people like that by Kate Langley-Bosher chapter 6 she acts so clearly about the girl we found on the street last night she put her to bed after she had recovered from her fainting spell on a cot in the room next to her own but this morning she told me the girl had gone and would tell me nothing else when Selwyn who had picked her up and laid her on the couch asked if she should not get a doctor Mrs. Mundi had said no and said it so positively that he offered to do nothing else and when she thanked him and told him good night in such a way he understood it was best he should go at the front door he called me with his back to it he held out his hands took mine in his crushed them in clasps so close they hurt Danny he said why do you torment me so you don't know what you are doing living where such things are possible as I have taken place tonight his voice broke and in amazement I looked at him horror and fear were in his face do you think it is so awful a thing to see a poor little creature who has been hurt and needs help I drew my hands away you talk as if I were a child Selwyn you are a child in your knowledge of of certain phases of life if I could only marry you tomorrow and take you away from here you should never know them well you can't marry me tomorrow I made an effort to love but Selwyn's face his manner frightened me I want to stay down here and stop being as ignorant as a child of things women should know behind the shelter of ignorance most women have already shirked too long I held out my hand if you stay a bit longer Selwyn I'll say things I shouldn't good night with a shrug of his shoulders he went down the steps and as I watched him for a moment I felt tempted to call him back it was not unusual for us to part indignant with each other we invariably clashed, disagreed and argued hotly if we got on certain subjects but tonight I did not want him to leave angrily something had made me afraid and uncertain and uneasy I could not define I could only feel it and if Selwyn should fail me shivering I stood in the doorway and as I started to go in I noticed a young fellow across the street under a tree who seemed to be watching the house he was evidently nervous and moved restlessly in the small circle of the shadow cast by the bare branches Selwyn apparently did not see him and crossing the street was close upon him before he knew he was there in astonishment I saw him start and stop saw him take the man by the arm what in the name of heaven in the still cold air I could hear distinctly why are you down here this time of night where are you going if there was answer I could not hear it but I could see the movement of the young man's shoulders could see him draw away and turn his back to Selwyn putting his hands in his pockets he started toward the corner lighted by the flickering gas jet then turned and walked to the one on which there was no light had I known him I could not have recognized him in the darkness but he was evidently well known to Selwyn for together they went down the street and out of sight I wonder who he was for the first time since I came to Scarborough Square Mrs. Mundy has not been today her chatty self she does not seem to want to talk that is of the girl I want to talk about when in my sitting room this morning I asked her the girl's name she said she did not know it did not know where she lived or what had happened to her and at my look of incomprehension at her seeming disregard she had turned away and beseed herself in dusting the books on the well filled table she was pretty nervous Mrs. Mundy's usually cheerful voice was troubled to talk to her ask her questions would just have made her more so they would not tell you anything if they can help it girls like that and I did not try to make her tell I gave her something to quiet her and stayed with her until she was asleep but when I went in the room this morning she was gone Bettina said she heard someone unbolt the door very softly but she thought it was me do you suppose she lives in this neighbourhood very anxious Mrs. Mundy turned and looked at me clearly she has tremendous admiration for what she calls my book learning and sees no incongruity in my ignorance of many things with which she is familiar my ignorance indeed she thinks it her duty to conserve and already we have had some differences of opinion as to what I should know and not know of the life about us there are a good many things I have got and taken more definitely she thinks of me still as a girl I am not I am a woman 26 years old half the girls you have seen coming home from work half will live around the square haven't any people here what they have is a room in somebody's house many are from the country or from small towns over 16,000 work in the factories alone you don't suppose they all have homes do you have someone who waits up for them at night someone who cares when they come in before I could answer she stopped her dusting and head on the side and hands on her hips listened there's the iceman at the kitchen door she said believably I'll have to go and let him in it is this I cannot understand this unusual evasiveness on Mrs. Mundy's part she is the least mysterious of persons indeed as open as the day and it is unlike her to act as she had done from childhood I have known her up to the time of Aunt Matilda's marriage to Mr. Chessmund she made my clothes and for years in all times of domestic complications has been our dependence when I decided to live for a while in the house once owned by my grandfather I turned to her in confidence that she would care not only for my material needs but that from her I could get what no one else could give me an insight into scenes and situations commonly concealed from surface sight her knowledge of life is wide and varied with unfailing faith and cheerful courage at the habit of seeing the humorous side of tragic catastrophes she has done her work among the sick and forsaken with no appeal to others save a certain few and only those who have been studied and heartened by her buoyant spirit and fed from her scant store have knowledge or understanding of what she means to the section of the city where the poor and lowly live bit by bit I am learning but even yet it is difficult to make her tell me all she does or how and when she does it it was partly because of certain talks with her that I decided to come to Scarborough Square if I could make but a few understand what she understands so understand that the sending of a check would not sufficiently relieve them from obligation from responsibility but how can I make clear to others what is not clear to me it will not be Betina's fault if I do not become acquainted with my new neighbours in Scarborough Square by the calendars accounting Betina's years are only 13 but in shrewdness of penetration in swiftness of conclusion and in acceptance of the fact that most people are queer she is amazingly mature her readiness to go with me anywhere I wish to go is unfailing but save on Saturdays and Sundays we can only pay our visits in the afternoon it is late when she gets from school and dark soon after we start but with Betina I am safe outside and inside of the house our roles are reversed concerning my books and my pictures concerning the people who ride on their own automobiles who go to the theatre whenever they wish to the fine churches with beautiful music and paid pews the people who give parties and wear gorgeous clothes and eat mushrooms and therapine which she considered inexplicable taste she will ask me countless questions but outside of the house she becomes the teacher and I the taught just what I am learning she hardly understands what is new to me is commonplace to her and she does not dream that I often cannot sleep at night for remembering what the day has shown me tomorrow we are going to see a Mrs. Gibbons whose little boy eleven years of age is the head of his mother's house the support of her family end of chapter 6 chapter 7 of people like that this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org people like that by Kate Langley Bosher chapter 7 hands in her pockets Bettina looked at me disappointedly it's very cold she said why don't you wear your fur coat I like this one better it's warm and not so heavy your fur coat is the only one in Scarborough Square a sure enough fur one I mean there are plenty of imitations Mrs. Grimm's got an imitation you look awful grand in that fur coat look like a princess person Granny says you don't want to seem different from the people down here how are you going to help it I don't know I mean it was silly that my face should flush before Bettina's unblinking scrutiny I did I don't want to seem different people are much more alike than they imagine if we didn't think so much of our differences bound to think of them when they are white in your face you don't suppose you're anything like Evie Maypour are you or Roberta Wicks or Mrs. Claybird every time I see Evie Maypour I wish I was an Indian so I could tomahawk her hair nose and hair and chewing them Mr. Grimm says he thinks girls who dress like Roberta Wicks ought to be run in but there ain't any law which lets him do it Mr. Grimm's going to a big wedding tonight did you know it I shook my head in my mouth were the pins with which my veil was to be farzoned hands on my hat I straightened the ladder before putting on the veil well he is funny ain't it all these swells have to have a plain coats man at weddings so the people what come to him won't take any of the presents that's Mr. Grimm's chief business nowadays looking out for high class crooks he says he ain't as strong coloured as some of the ladies he sees up town but he never did see a face with more sense and soul in it than what yours has got at the last wedding he went to he told Granny some of the ladies didn't have on clothes are you ready it gets dark by five o'clock I'm ready taking up my muff I followed Bettina down the steps and into the street to the corner on which was the little shop wherein were sold goldfish and cannery birds and fox terriers and white rabbits and from there we turned the direction which led to Mrs. Gibbons the day was cold and clear but the ground was slippery with sleet and holding on to my arm Bettina made valiant efforts to pilot me a ride as we walked she talked and the names of the occupants of various houses passed were told to me together with the particular kind of work in which they were engaged and the amount of wages which were earned by different members of the household the information given me had been gained from her schoolmates and what at first had seemed appalling frankness and freedom of custom and a comparison of earnings a favourite subject of discussion among children of all ages recess it appears is the usual time for an exchange of facts concerning family affairs my rub-lunt who sits in front of me says she's going in the pickle factory as soon as she's fourteen Bettina slipped but caught herself and held my arm more firmly she's a rashman's daughter and she's got a mould right on the end of her nose it's a little on one side but it looks awful funny and Jimmy Rice says she'll stay in that pickle factory all her life if she don't have that mould taken off a boy won't have a girl for a sweet heart if her nose has got a mould on it will he? Mara is afraid it will hurt to have it come off she's an awful coward this is the place this is ninety two Mrs Gibbons' residence was one of several small and shabby houses which huddled together as a for protection and as we went up the steps of the shaky porch a head from the second story window was thrust out a head wrapped in a red crocheted shawl you all want to see Mrs Gibbons? she ain't to home that is I don't think she is she told me this morning she was going down to the Firmary to get some medicine for that misery in her back what struck her yesterday if she ain't to home you all can come up here and rest yourself if you want to it's awful cold ain't it? before we could express our appreciation of the hospitality offered the door at which we had knocked was opened cautiously and at its aperture a head was seen there was a moment's hesitancy and then the door opened more widely if this Mrs Gibbons Bettina asked the question and at its answer called to the woman still leaning out of the upstairs window she's home then she introduced me this is Mrs Heath Mrs Dandridge Heath Mrs Gibbons and I'm Bettina Wall we've come to see you can we come in? Mrs Gibbons who had nodded imperceptibly in my direction as Bettina called my name motioned limply toward a room on my right and as I entered it I looked at her and saw at once that she too belonged to the unqualified and unfit she must once have been a pretty woman but her hair and eyes were now a dusty black her skin the colour of putty and her mouth a drooping curve that gave to her face the expression of one who was about to cry life had apparently for some time been more than she was equal to and incapable of battling further with it she radiated a helplessness that was pitiable and yet irritating thin and flat chested her uncorseted figure in its rusty black dress straightened for half a minute then again it relaxed take a seat won't you? her voice was as listless as her eyes it's warmer in the kitchen maybe you'd better come back there my little girl's in there she's sick as we turned to leave the room I glanced around it the windows were down the shutters closed but by the light which came through the broken slats and cheap lace curtains whose ends were spread expansively on the bare floor I saw its furnishings a bed covered with a white spread and with pillow shams embroidered in red cotton was against the side of the wall facing the windows and close to it was a table on which lay a switch of coarse black hair a creep paper lambroquin decorated the mantel shelf whose ornaments were a cup and saucer a shaving set and a pair of conch shelves while between the windows was a wash stand obviously kept for ornamental purposes as there was no water in the pitcher and the basin was cracked pinned on the soft plastering of the walls were florid advertisements of various necessities and luxuries of life together with highly colored scripture texts and over the mantel hung a crayon of the once head of the house the room was cold and damp the air in it had not been changed for some time and as Mrs. Gibbons stopped and picked up the baby who at the sound of voices had crawled into the room I did not wonder at its creepy cough down the dark and narrow passageway Bettina and I followed our hostess and at its end I would have stumbled over a step had I not been warned in time the noise made by a box overturned by Bettina gave the latter opportunity to give me one more injunction don't promise to do too much right off the whisper was uncomfortably clear she's the kind who's like a sifter you have to be right hard with people like that take care there's another step end of chapter 7 chapter 8 of people like that this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org people like that by Kate Langley Bosher Chapter 8 as we entered the kitchen a tiny room with one window in it I glanced around it as I had done at the front room the two seeming to complete the suite occupied by Mrs. Gibbons my survey was quick and cautious but not too much so for mental noting the observation of time and space and labour represented by an arrangement of household effects I had never seen before help and comfort were the principal omissions in one corner of the room was a bed covered with a calico quilt of many colours and under it a pallet tucked away for convenience in the daytime but obviously out at night close to the bed was a large stove in which a good fire was burning the blue and white saucepan on the top came forth order of a soup with which I was not familiar the door of the oven was partly open and in the latter could be seen a pan of heavy looking biscuits which apparently awaited their devouring at any time that suited the desire of the devourer Bettina looked at them and then at me but she said nothing that is nothing out loud sit down Mrs. Gibbons the baby still in her arms made efforts to dust one of the two chairs in the room with the gingham apron she was wearing and after failing motioned me to take it the other one she pushed toward Bettina with her foot on the bed was a little girl of six or seven and as we took our seats a boy who barely looked ten came from behind a couple of washed-ups in an opposite corner of the room and wiped his hands on a towel hanging from a hook in the wall like something concerning this boy was the purpose of our visit speak to the lady Jimmy anybody would think you didn't have no manners no you can't have your supper yet Mrs. Gibbons waved her hand weakly at her son who smiling at us had gone to a corner cupboard with perforated tints of diamond pattern at its doors and taken there from a soup plate and cup and saucer paying no attention to his mother's reference to a delayed meal he laddled out of the big saucepan with a cracked cup a plate of the steaming soup and carried it carefully to an oil cloth covered table on which was a lamp and glass pitcher some unwashed dishes left from the last meal a broken doll and a child's shoe putting down the plate of soup he came back to the store and poured out a cup of feeble looking coffee going to be extrozzed out tonight and I mightn't get back till after 10 again his gay little smile lighted a thin face if and I don't eat now I mightn't eat at all have one he poked a plate of the health destroying biscuits at Bettina with a merry little movement and bravely she took one bravely made effort to eat it what's your name I heard him ask her and then I turned to Mrs. Gibbons it is about your little boy I've come to see you I moved my chair as far as possible from the red hot stop and opened my coat he is too young to be at work he isn't 12 is he the indignation I had felt on hearing of Jimmy's bondage to a bench from 7 in the morning to 6 in the evening with an interval of an hour for lunch was unaccountably disappearing with helplessness and incapacity I was not ordinarily patient and Mrs. Gibbons was an excellent example of both still he isn't 12 yet is he I repeated Mrs. Gibbons pushed the little girl who was trying to get out of the bed back in it and shifted the whimpering baby from one arm to the other for a moment she hesitated looked at me uncertainly no he ain't but 11 but I had to tell the mayor that signed the papers permitting of him to work that he was 12 the law don't let children work lessen they are 12 and only then if their mother is a widow and ain't got nothing and nobody to do for her I don't like to tell a story if I can help it and them what don't know nothing about how things is can't understand and say we oughtn't do it they'd do it too if and they had to do after his father died I had to take Jimmy out of school and put him to work there wasn't nothing else to do has his father been dead long I moved still further from the stove my question was unthinking he couldn't have been dead long in days and months it ain't been so long but it's been awful long to me it ain't been more in a year since they brought him home to meet dead and I've been plum no count ever since this baby she put the child in her arms on her lap and shook her knees in mechanical effort to still its cries this baby was born while its father was being buried and when I took in my man was gone and wouldn't never come home no more never give me his wages on Saturday nights and wouldn't be here to do nothing for me and the children seems like something inside me just give out I reckon you ain't never had nothing to happen to you like that have you no I've never had anything like that to happen to me the last remnant of indignation was vanishing that is against the helpless incapable worn out woman who was Jimmy's mother against something else something I could not place or define or call by name it was rising I know you need Jimmy's help I said after a moment but he's too young to work too small came near not getting a job count of not being no bigger his mouth filled with half a biscuit the boy nodded at me gleefully then putting down his spoon he dusted his hands and wiped them on the side of his trousers the first place mother and me went to they wouldn't take me cause the table where I had to work struck me right here his hands swiped his throat just under his chin but the next place was alright they had a boy's table and the bench was made high on purpose what is it you do I asked and again my voice sounded strange is it a box factory you're in soap and pills head thrown back Jimmy drained the last drop of coffee from his cup then scraped the latter with the tin spoon for its last bit of sugar we are pasters our gang is we paste the paper on the boxes there's a boy sits next to me what's the fastest paster in town but I'm going to beat him some day I can paste almost as fast as he can now he could beat him now if he didn't play so much in his mother's voice was neither scolding nor complaint Jimmy always would play some from the time he was born his boss says he's the best worker he's got excepting the boy who sits next to him and if he just stays all day oh can he play I made no apology for the interruption the child was undersized and eerily nourished and to let him work 10 hours a day seemed a crime for which I and all others who cared for children were somehow responsible but if he had a chance to play when old miss high spy goes out the room we can play Jimmy gave his trousers a jerk and made effort to force connection between a button and a buttonhole belonging respectively to his upper and his lower garments she's a regular old tale teller but soon as she's out the room we get down from our bench and rush around and tag each other our benches ain't got no backs to him and if we didn't get off sometimes we couldn't sit up all day the other fellows the big ones don't tell on us they make us put the windows down when she's out do you mean you don't have any air in the room my voice was unbelieving and had something in my face Jimmy laughed not when we are working the wind might blow the little pieces of paper off the table and we lose time getting him she says some the boys get so sick from the heat and the glue smell they heave up their breakfast and can't eat nothing all day I ain't fainted but twice since I've been there but Alex Hobbs heals over once a week anyhow used to frighten me at first when I saw him getting greeny but I don't mind it now with a quick turn of his head Jimmy looked at a small clock on the shelf above the wash tubs and got up with even quicker movement I forgot about the wood and the papers will be ready for I can get there if I don't hurry goodbye to you all and slamming the door behind him he ran down the kitchen steps into the yard where in a moment we heard him whistling as he chopped the wood that must be brought up for the morning it was not often Mrs. Gibbons had a listener who had never before heard of her hardships and after explaining to me why Jimmy was at home at that time of the day his presence being due not to trifling on his part but to the half time the factory was running she gave herself up to the luxury in detail of her many misfortunes and of her inability to get through the winter unless additional help were given her can't you work? I asked if the children were put in a day nursery they would be well looked after and here would probably be more comfortable in a good factory than here a good factory the inflection in her voice was one of listless tolerance for my ignorance I don't reckon you ever worked in one there ain't none of him good some's better than others but when you get up at five o'clock on winter mornings and make the fire and melt the water if it's frozen to wash your face with and does it freeze in here? Bettina who had by effort restrained herself from taking part in the conversation leaned forward and dug her hands deep in her lap does it really freeze in this hot room? it ain't hot in here at night last winter it froze most every night for a month Miss Cotter was boating with me last winter her and her little girl both she's the lady that rents the room between the kitchen and the front room from me she serves on carpets and the place she works at is right far from here she warned well last winter some kind of misery is always on her and she asked me to boat her so she wouldn't have to do no cooking before she goes away in the morning and when she comes back at night with a swift movement of her hand Mrs Gibbons got the little girl who behind her back was making ready to slip off the bed and on the floor but as she swung her again in place she kept up her talking and by neither rise nor fall was the monotone of her voice broken I had to get up at five so as to have breakfast in time for I can't get the room warm and the things cooked in less than an hour and she has to leave here a little up to six so as to take her little girl to the nursery before she goes to her place and they ain't no ways close together the stars are shining when she goes out and they are shining when she comes in that is if the weather is good she's been so wore out lately she's been taking her meals again with me but I don't see much of her she goes to bed the minute she's through supper Bettina twisted in her chair do you eat and sleep in here too? she asked her eyes were on Mrs. Gibbons carefully she kept them from mine do you always eat in here? we eat in here all the time and sleep in here in winter because they rained but one fire that goes out early which is why the water freezes Jimmy has to bring it up from the yard in buckets and as the nurse lady who comes down here says we must have fresh air in the room being just all four of us sleep in it I keep the window open at night I don't take no stock in all this fresh air talk taint only the water that gets froze why don't you cover a bucket full of it with one of those tubs? again Bettina's forefinger pointed that would keep the wind off and the water wouldn't freeze she stared up I never thought of that get back Rosie Mrs. Gibbons made effort to catch her little daughter but this time the child wriggled down from the foot of the bed and came toward me hands behind her back and stared up into my face what's your name? I told her and asked hers and without further preliminaries she came close to me and told hers to be taken in my lap we've got to go we're bound to go Miss Dandridge with a leap Bettina was out of her chair and catching the little girl by the hand she drew her from me and dangled in front of her a once silvered mesh bag took from it a penny and gave it to her then she turned to Mrs. Gibbons we are awful glad we have seen you Bettina nodded gravely to the woman on the bed and of course we won't tell anybody about Jimmy not being twelve yet but Miss Heed wants him to go back to school and she's coming to see you soon about it we've got to go now in a manner I could not understand Bettina who had gotten up and was now standing behind Mrs. Gibbons beckoned to me mysteriously and fearing the latter might become aware of her violent movements I too got up and shook hands with my hostess I will see you in a few days I said there's no chance for Jimmy if he doesn't have some education he ought to go back to school yes Em I know he ought but he can't go Jimmy's mother shook hands limply the pickle factory where I used to work is turning off hands every week and I can't get nothing to do there I don't know how to do nothing but pickles sometimes I get a little sowing at home but I ain't a sower the charity sent me a basket of keep life in you groceries every now and then and the city gives me some coal and wood when there's enough to go around more than once but I need Jimmy's money for the rent if the rent were paid would you let him go back to school yes ma the dull voice quickened but not all I'd be glad to let him go I don't want him to work but then that don't know how it is can't understand you all must come again goodbye come back here Rosie you'll catch your death out there goodbye in the open air which felt good after the steaming heat of the bedroom kitchen Bettina and I walked for a few moments in silence and then slipping her arm in mine she looked up at me with wise little eyes please excuse me for telling you Miss Dandridge but you're new yet in the places you've been going to since you came to Scarborough Square and you'll have to be careful about taking the children on your lap and in your arms if they are babies you love children and you just naturally hold out your hands to them but if you don't know them very well you'd better not all of them ain't healthy and hardly any Bettina stopped and standing still looked straight ahead of her at a man and a young woman crossing the street some little distance from us then she looked up at me the man was Selwyn the girl with him was the odd and elfish creature who had been hurt in Scarborough Square and whom he had helped bring in to Mrs. Mundy End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of people like that this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org People like that by Kate Langley-Bosher Chapter 9 Bettina who had opened the door for Selwyn on its last visit and who had informed me the next day that she had shivered with trembles because of his great difference to the men in Scarborough Square for the second time looked up at me What is he doing down here? Her finger pointed in the direction of the man and woman just ahead of us What is he talking to that girl for? I did not answer her at once amazement and unbelief were making my heart hot and a flood of colour burnt my face of all men on earth Selwyn was the last to find in this part of the town at this time of the evening and as he bent his head to speak to the girl I noticed he was talking earnestly and using his hands in expressive gestures as he talked Starting forward I took a few steps and then stopped sharply I don't know what he is doing down here Certainly he is at liberty to come here just as we come Bettina's eyes strained in the darkness I can't see her face If we cross over we can catch up with them by the time they reach the corner where we could see her in the light The grip of my hand on her arm made her stop I mean you don't know what you mean It was silly childish unreasonable that I should speak sharply to Bettina and equally unreasonable that fear and horror and sickening suspicion should possess me but possessed I was by sensations hitherto unexperienced For a moment the gaslight from the lamp on the opposite street corner wavered and circled in a confusing bewildering way Sudden revelations sudden realizations were unsteadying me Was Selvind really someone I did not know was his life less single than I believed it hateful ugly disloyal questions surged tumultously for a half minute then reasoned returned and shamed that I should insult him with doubt cooled the flame in my face it's too late to go to the binkers we'd better go home we'll go there some other afternoon I turned from Bettina's amazed eyes my tone of voice a moment before was still perplexing her and unblinkingly she was searching my face hitherto her directness her frankness of speech and use of words had amused me and I had permitted perhaps too great an exercise of her gift of comment but applied personally it was a different matter we'll go to the corner and turn there I said that will be the nearest way home but don't you want to see who she is Scarborough Square Customs were those most familiar to Bettina and they exacted understanding of doubtful situations don't you want to see what what she looks like why should I Mr. Thorn knows many people I do not know I moved toward the corner come on it's getting late gentlemen like him don't know girls like her she lives down here somewhere and he lives where you used to live he couldn't be sweet on her because because he couldn't she caught up with me he's yours ain't he Miss Danny you'd better tell him I hated myself for looking across the street but as I hurried on my eyes were following Selwyn and the girl and when I saw the latter stop and bury her face in her hands saw Selwyn say something to her saw him turn in one direction and she in another I too stopped for a moment was unable to move we had reached the corner as Selwyn left the opposite one and came toward us as I sat down as if deeply thinking he did not look up until close to us under the gaslight I waited not knowing why and Bettina being behind me he thought I was alone when presently he saw me damned rich he stared as if stupefied with amazement lifting his hat mechanically he came closer what in the name of heaven are you doing here alone this time of night are you losing your mind his entire absence of embarrassment his usual disapproval of my behaviour his impatient anger had an unlooked for effect and sudden relief and hot joy so surged over me that I laughed a queer nervous joking little laugh I'm not alone it is not yet six and I have been to see a boy who is what you are not a house I mean a house with a family in it have you too been visiting his face flushed and frowningly he turned away I had business down here I had to come to it as it could not be brought to me where are you going home Bettina who in some unaccountable way had managed to stay behind me came forward and bowed as if to an audience I have been taking her to where she goes Mr. Thon and Granny knows all the places there ain't one that's got a disease in it and Mr. Crimm would tell us if it wasn't right to go to them she don't ever go anywhere by herself she's too new yet Selwyn smiled grudgingly Bettina's fat and short little body made effort to stretch to protective requirements and her keen eyes raised to his held them for a moment then she turned to me maybe he'd like to go to some of the homes we go to and see no he doesn't want to see I caught her hand and slipped it through my arm it's much more comfortable not to see one can sleep so much better are you going our way I turned to Selwyn if you are we'd better start for a full block we said nothing Selwyn biting the ends of his close cut moustache walked beside me hands in his pockets and eyes straight ahead and not until Bettina had twice asked him if he knew where Rowland Street was did he answer her Rowland Street he turned abruptly as if brought back to something far removed in thought what on earth do you know of Rowland Street nothing I never knew there was a street by that name until last week when I heard a girl talking to Granny who said she lived on it she did her hands when she talked just like the girl with you did Bettina twisted hers in imitative movements she didn't keep her hands still a minute few girls do when they talk they apparently prefer to use their hands to their brains Selwyn's shoulder shrugged impatiently then his teeth came together on his lip again he stared ahead and save for Bettina's chatter we walked in silence to Scarborough Square there had been few times in my life in which speech was impossible but during the quarter of an hour it took us to reach home where it would not come and numbness possessed my body a world of possibilities a world I did not know seemed suddenly revealing itself and at its dark depths and sinister shadows I was frightened and more than frightened conflicting and confusing emotions a sense of outreach and revolt were making me first hot and then cold and distrust and suspicion and baffling helplessness were enveloping me beyond resistance the happy ignorance and unconcern and indifference of my girlhood my young womanhood were vanishing before cruel and compelling verities and that which because of its ugliness its offensiveness its repulsiveness I had wanted to know nothing about I knew I would now be forced to face it was true that Mrs. Mundy and Aunt Matilda and Selwyn and even Kitty four years younger than myself had often told me that in knowledge of certain phases of life I was unwarrantably lacking subjects that had seemingly interested other girls and other women had never interested me and I took no part in their discussion and now the protection of the past that had prevented understanding of sorted situations and polluting possibilities was being roughly torn away and I was seeing that which not only stung and shocked and sickened but I was seeing myself as one who after selfish sleep had been rudely waked head and heart hot I pushed back up leaping questions forced down surging suspicion and tormenting fears but all the while I was conscious that in the friendship that was mine and Selwyn's the something that was more than friendship a great gap had opened that was separating us if he gave no explanation of his acquaintance with the girl he had just left it must be because he could not he knew my hatred of mystery my insistence upon frankness between friends would he come in and talk as freely as he had ever done of whatever concerned him would he tell me as I opened the door with Malachki Bettina bounded inside and the light falling on Selwyn's face showed it white and worn something was greatly troubling him good night he turned toward the steps without offering his hand it is useless to ask you not to go in such neighbourhoods as you were in this evening but if you knew what you were doing you would stay away I know very well what I am doing I am hardly so stubborn or willful as you think but if it is unwise for me to be in the neighbourhood referred to is it any less wise for you me the inflection in his voice was the eternal difference in a man's and woman's privileges it was not a question of wisdom my being where you saw me it was one of necessity moreover a man can go where he pleases a woman can't no purity of purpose can overcome the tyranny of convention convention my hands made impatient gesture it is the dragnet of human effort the shelter within which cowards run to cover in its place it has purpose but its place for convenience sake has been immensely magnified and why is convention limited to women it was childish when I got burst and ashamed of it I started to go in then turned and again looked at Selwyn into his face had come something I could not understand something that involved our future friendship and frightened I leaned against the iron railing of the little porch and gripped it with hands behind my back Selwyn the words came unsteadyly have you nothing to say to me Selwyn don't you know that I know the girl with you tonight was the girl who who we brought in here last night if you knew her why staring at me as if not understanding Selwyn came closer in his eyes was puzzled questioning but as they held mine they filled with something of horror and over his face which had been white and worn spread deep and crimson flush you don't mean God in heaven do you think the girl is anything to me I did not answer and turning he went down the steps and I into the house end of chapter 9 chapter 10 of people like that this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org people like that chapter 10 for the past 10 days I have been a very restless person Mrs. Mundi looks at me out of the corners of her kind and keen and cheery little eyes when she does not think I'm noticing but she asks me nothing Mrs. Mundi is the wisest woman I know if only I could sleep during the days I'm busy but I dread the long nights when questions crowd that I might as I may I cannot keep from asking Selwyn is my friend I never doubt a friend but why does he not come to me why does he not make clear that which he must know is inexplicable to me I may never marry Selwyn but certainly I shall marry no one else how could we hope for happiness when we feel so differently toward much that is vital when our attitude to life is as apart as the poles when each thinks the other wrong points of view and manner of living Selwyn was born in a house with high walls rounded he likes its walls he does not care for many to come in and care still less to go outside to others few people interest him all sorts interest me we are both selfish and stubborn but both hate that which is not clean and clear and save from his own lips I would not believe that in his life is out of what he could not tell me I have never told him I loved him never promised to marry him to live in his high walled house with its conventional customs its aged dimmed portraits its stiff furnishings and shut out sunshine would stifle every cell in brain and lungs and to marry him would be to marry his house I hate his house hate the aloofness the lack of sympathy it represents its proud past I can appreciate but not its useless present the death of his brother Harry it is the one thing of his old life left Selwyn at the death of his father he brought Harry's interest and it is all his now I would not ask him to live elsewhere but I would choke and smother did I live in his house and yet 10 days have passed and I have neither seen nor heard from Selwyn I have often wondered on waking winter mornings in my very warm bed able to go out in the grey dawn of a new day and hurry off to work now I know for more than a week I have been up at 5.45 and at 6.30 have been hurrying with Lucy Hobs who lives around the corner to the overalls factory where she is a far woman it is dark and cold and raw at half past six on a winter morning and the sun rises very different from what it is in summer each morning as I started out with Lucy and hurried down street after street I watched the opening doors of the shabby, dull looking houses we passed with keen interest Ash cans and garbage bills were in front of many of them and through unshuttered windows a child could occasionally be seen with his face pressed against the pain waiting to wave goodbye to someone who is leaving out of the doors of these houses came men and women and boys and girls who hurried as we hurried to some a wave of her uplifted hand to others a blank stare at others again Lucy seemed leading a long procession around each corner and from every car that passed some more hands and each morning when the factory was reached a crowd that jammed its entrance and extended half a block up and down the street was waiting for the opening of the door out of which it would not come until darkness fell again for the first day or two I was noticed with indifference on the part of some resentment on the part of others but on the third day as I took my place in the pushing laughing growling crowd that made its way up several flights of stairs to the big room where shabby clothes are changed for yet shabbier working once my good mornings were greeted with less grudging acknowledgments and now we are quite friendly these hands and eye and through their eyes I am seeing myself seeing much and many things from an angle never used before they nodded to me less hesitatingly as the days went by and at the noon hour when I have my lunch with first one group and then another I find them on the whole frank and outspoken find they have as decided opinions concerning what they term people like that which term is usually accompanied by gesture in the direction where I once lived as said people have concerning them to whom as a rule they also refer in much the same manner and with the same words with each group on either side of it separating gulf the conviction is firm that little is to be hoped for or expected from the other and common qualities are forgotten in the realisation of distinctive differences what is the most you ever made a week the girl who asked the question moved up for me to sit on the bench beside her and unwrapping a newspaper parcel from it a large cucumber pickle a piece of cheese a couple of biscuits and half a coconut pie and laid them on a table in front of her help yourself she pushed the paper serving as tray and clothed toward me I ain't had much appetite lately hello mammy come over here and sit on our bench what you got good for lunch my stomachs turned back on pie I'd give 10 cents for a cup of coffee everywhere else but this old hot house sells it for 2 cents a cup without and 3 cents with the girl called mammy nodded to me and took her seat on the bench I don't like milk know how and I'd give the money glad for something hot in the middle of the day don't nothing do your insides as much good as something piping hot say I saw Barker last night her voice lowered but little he and I are going to see some girl it's all makeup his being sweet on sealy bane that knock need slew footed pop eyed Gracie Jones got that off I'm going to get one from lace and chiffon waist at plums for 2 dollars 98 cents if don't nobody get sick and need medicine between now and Wednesday seems like somebody's always sick at our house the question asked me had been forgotten and glad to escape the acknowledgement that I had never earned a dollar in my life I got up on the plea that I must see a girl on the other end of the room and walked across it as I went I scant each face I saw consciously or subconsciously I had been hoping for days that I would see a face which ever haunts me a face I wanted to forget and could not forget everywhere I go in factories or mills or shops or homes in the streets and at my windows I'm always wondering if I shall see her she was very unhappy who is she why was Selwyn with her it is my last thought at night my first in the morning yesterday I was at the box factory where Jimmy Gibbons works it is his last week there on the 15th he starts again to school knowing the president of the company well I asked that Jimmy should be my guide through the various departments and permission was given I wish Jimmy were mine Miss High Spy ain't got any love for onlookers and we'd better not stay in here long Jimmy's voice was cautious but his eyes merry and glancing in the direction of the sore and snappy person watching each movement of each worker I agreed with him that it was not well to linger the room was big and bare its benches filled with white-faced workers and the autocrat who presided over it seemed unconscious of its stifling steamy heat and sickening smells of glue and paste going out into the hall Jimmy and I went to a window opened it and gave our lungs a bath what does she do it for is she crazy not asylum crazy mean crazy Jimmy's head nodded first negatively then with affirmation she's come up from the beginning place and used to be a fire eater before she got to be boss of our bunch and the men say people like that people who ain't used to driving drive harder than any other kind when they get the chance she's a bully to the under ones but the uppers Jimmy's eyes were lifted to mine and his lips made a whistling sound if Mr. Pritchard kicked her in the face she'd lick the soles of his shoes when he was doing it if she could she wants to be boss of the room upstairs and Mr. Pritchard can put her where he pleases if he don't do it the women say can't of her knowing more about him than he knows she knows I don't know what this but I hate her all of us hate her why doesn't someone speak to Mr. Johns certainly he can't know yes him he does Joe Dixon and Bob Beasley told him once and the next week they got a handout high spy made Mr. Pritchard do it Mr. Johns leaves those kinds of things to him swell folks like him I came in got time to look after folks like us he's awful rich ain't he he isn't poor when are you going to have your lunch I looked at my watch can't you go out and have it with me I'll ask Mr. Johns come on quick I'll see the other rooms when I come back Jimmy shook his head I can't go I ain't being docked count of being with you because Mr. Pritchard sent me but he wouldn't let me come back if I went out I've been sent down to him once today and please him don't ask him please him don't in Jimmy's voice was something of terror and his hand slipped in and out of his trousers pockets with nervous frightened movements his usually merry little mouth with its pale lips quivered oddly and in his eyes as he turned away were tears I could not understand I put my hand on his shoulder lifted his face to mine what is it Jimmy what has happened that you don't want me to ask Mr. Johns to tell Mr. Pritchard you can go with me why are you afraid I ain't afraid yes I am I've been docked once today please him don't ask Mr. Pritchard nothing high spy makes him punish me whenever punish you I straightened indignantly why does he punish you what right I don't mean licking but he keeps me out of the room when I'm sent out and docks me at the end of the week mother needs every cent she's back in the rent I was sent out today but why what were you doing nothing least ways I didn't mean to there wasn't none of us sick this morning and Billy Coons was acting down behind high-spice back and I tried not to laugh she don't let us laugh but she said I did didn't laugh Jimmy's voice was protesting I just smiled and it it busted is that why she made you go out of the room I turned away and looked out of the window less the accident to Jimmy smile be mine is that why she sent you out he nodded Mr. Pritchard kept me out an hour sometimes he lets me make it up at lunch I was going to ask him to let me today but I'm preventing I'm glad of it when are you going to eat your lunch I've done it it Jimmy's tongue moistened his lips I ate it on my way here this morning I got paid off last night and I took out five cents and gave the rest to mother and this morning I bought a pie with it and ate up every bite it might have been hooked when I was out of the room so I'm glad I didn't save none I got it at hex he keeps the best pies in town for five cents they are real fat I was paying little attention to Jimmy at the open window I could see a young girl across the street with a baby in her arms she had brought it from a small frame house with high steps leading to a sagging porch in the door of which a large and kindly phased woman was standing arms folded and eyes watching the movements of the girl as the latter lifted her head on which was no hat I leaned forward my heart and my throat the odd eager young face the boyish arrangement of the hair above it the quick bird-like movements of the slender body had burned for days and nights in my brain and I recognized her at once Jimmy I said, come here I drew him to the window with nervous haste my fingers twitching my breath unsteady who is that girl with the baby there she is turning the corner look quick, do you know her Jimmy shook his head never saw her can't see her now he leaned far out the window but the girl had disappeared and the woman in the doorway had gone in and closed the door I must have said something made some sort of sound for Jimmy turning from the window looked at me uneasily in his eyes distressed and understanding what's the matter Miss Heath you'd better sit down quick, you are here whiter than that wall end of chapter 10