Part 38 (1/2)
The landlady was a thin, anxious, and very common woman with false hair and teeth; and evidently determined to secure Athalie for a lodger.
But the terms she offered the girl for the entire top floor were so absurdly small that Athalie hesitated, astonished and perplexed.
”Oh, there's a jinx in the place,” said the landlady; ”I ain't aiming to deceive n.o.body, and I'll tell you the G.o.d-awful truth. If I don't,”
she added navely, ”somebody else is sure to hand it to you and you'll get sore on me and quit.”
”What _is_ the matter with the apartment?” inquired the girl uneasily.
”I'll tell you: the lady that had it went dead on me last August.”
”Is that all?”
”No, dearie. It was chloral. And of course, the papers got hold of it and n.o.body wants the apartment. That's why you get it cheap--if you'll take it and chase out the jinx that's been wished on me. Will you, dearie?”
”I don't know,” said the girl, looking around at the newly decorated and cheerful rooms.
The landlady sniffed: ”It certainly was one on me when I let that jinx into my house--to have her go dead on me and all like that.”
”Poor thing,” murmured Athalie, partly to herself.
”No, she wasn't poor. You ought to have seen her rings! Them's what got her into trouble, dearie;--and the roll she flashed.”
”Wasn't it suicide?” asked Athalie.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”'Wasn't it suicide?' asked Athalie.”]
”I gotta tell you the truth. No, it wasn't. She was feeling fine and dandy. Business had went good.... There was a young man to visit her that evening. I seen him go up the stairs.... But I was that sleepy I went to bed. So I didn't see him come down. And next day at noon when I went up to do the room she lay dead onto the floor, and her rings gone, and the roll missing out of her stocking.”
”Did the man kill her?”
”Yes, dearie. And the papers had it. That's what put me in Dutch. I gotta be honest with _you_. You'd hear it, anyway.”
”But how could he give her chloral--”
The anxious, excited little woman's volubility could suffer restraint no longer:
”Oh, he could dope her easy in the dark!” she burst out. ”Not that the house ain't thur'ly respectable as far as I can help it, and all my lodgers is refined. No, Miss Greensleeve, I won't stand for nothing that ain't refined and genteel. Only what can a honest woman do when she's abed and asleep, what with all the latch keys and entertainin', and things like that? No, Miss Greensleeve, I ain't got myself to blame, being decent and law-abiding and all like that, what with the police keeping tabs and the neighbourhood not being Fifth Avenoo either!--and this jinx wished on me--”
”Please--”
”Oh, I suppose you ain't a-goin' to stay here now that you've learned all about these goin's on and all like that--”
”_Please_ wait!”--for the voluble landlady was already beginning to sniffle;--”I am perfectly willing to stay, Mrs. Meehan,--if you will promise to be a little patient about my rent until I secure a position--”
”Oh, I will, Miss Greensleeve! I ain't plannin' to press you none! I know how it is with money and with young ladies. Easy come, easy go!
Just give me what you can. I ain't fixed any too good myself, what with butchers and bakers and rent owed me and all like that. I guess I can trust you to act fair and square--”
”Yes; I am square--so far.”
Mrs. Meehan began to sob, partly with relief, partly with a general tendency to sentimental hysteria: ”I can see that, dearie. And say--if you're quiet, I ain't peekin' around corners and through key-holes.
No, Miss Greensleeve; that ain't my style! Quiet behaved young ladies can have their company without me saying nothing to n.o.body. All I ask is that no lady will cut up flossy in any shape, form, or manner, but behave genteel and refined to one and all. I don't want no policeman in the area. That ain't much to ask, is it?” she gasped, fairly out of breath between eloquence and tears.