With the breaking of day I was upon my feet. A rude step had gone up
the stairs a few minutes before and I was all alert to follow. But I
presently considered that my wisest course would be to sound the
landlady and learn if possible with what sort of characters I had to
deal. Routing her out of the kitchen, where at that early hour she
was already engaged in domestic duties, I drew her into a retired
corner and put my questions. She was not backward in replying. She
had conceived an innocent liking for me in the short time I had been
with her--a display of weakness for which I was myself, perhaps, as
much to blame as she--and was only too ready to pour out her griefs
into my sympathizing ear. For those men were a grief to her,
acceptable as was the money they were careful to provide her with.
They were not only always in the house, that is one of them, smoking
his old pipe and blackening up the walls, but they looked so shabby,
and kept the girl so close, and if they did go out, came in at such
unheard of hours. It was enough to drive her crazy; yet the money,
the money--
"Yes," said I, "I know; and the money ought to make you overlook all
the small disagreeablenesses you mention. What is a landlady without
patience." And I urged her not to turn them out.
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