A Night of Gaiety Read Online Free PDF Page A

feeling that there were far too many people and the noise was deafening.
    T hen, the porter having kindly looked after her, Davita found herself driving away from the Station in a four-wheeler, her trunks perched on the top of it, with a rather tired horse carrying her through the crowded streets.
    “ I am here!” she said to herself. “I am in London, and please ... please, God ... take care of me!”
     

    Chapter Two
    T HE house looked rather dingy and gloomy on the outside and Davita told herself it was because she was not used to London houses.
    She asked the cabman who had climbed down from his box to wait, and went up two steps to raise the knocker which she noted needed polishing.
    There was some delay before the door was opened, and a rather blowsy but pleasant-looking woman stood facing her.
    “Could I please ... speak to ... Miss Violet Lock?” Davita asked in a voice that sounded somewhat hesitating.
    The woman smiled.
    “I thinks yer must be the friend her’s expectin’ from Scotland,” she said with a Cockney accent.
    For a moment Davita felt such a wave of relief sweep over her that it was difficult to speak. Then she said:
    “ Yes ... I am ... Is Miss Lock ... here?”
    “You’ve just missed her, dearie, she’s gorn to the Theatre,” the woman replied. “I’m Mrs. Jenkins, an’ I gathers I’m to expec’ a new lodger.”
    “I should be very grateful if I could stay here,” Davita replied.
    The Landlady had already pushed past her to shout to the cabby outside:
    “Bring ’em up t’ the Second Floor back, there’s a good man!”
    D avita thought the cabman grumbled at the instructions, but she did not wait to hear as she followed Mrs. Jenkins up the stairs.
    They were narrow and the carpet was worn, but she could think of nothing but the joy of knowing that Violet had expected her and she was not, as she had been half-afraid, alone in London with nowhere to go.
    When they reached the second floor, Mrs. Jenkins opened a door at the back and Davita almost gasped as she saw the tiniest room she had ever been expected to sleep in.
    There was just room for one bedstead and a rather rickety-looking chest-of-drawers. There was a rag-mat on the soiled linoleum.
    “It’s a bit small,” Mrs. Jenkins said, which was an understatement, “but yer friend’s next door, and I feels yer’d rather be near ’er than up another flight.”
    “Yes ... of course,” Davita said quickly, “and it was very kind of you to think of it.”
    Mrs. Jenkins smiled at her.
    “I tries to ’elp,” she answered, “an’ I never tikes a lodger in what ain’t on the boards. Yer’re the exception, but wiv yer looks yer’ll soon find yersel’ a place at the Gaiety.”
    She looked at Davita appraisingly as she spoke, taking in the red hair under her bonnet, the clear petal-like skin, and her large, rather frightened eyes.
    “Yer’re pretty enough—I’ll say that for yer,” she said. “Can yer dance?”
    “I ... I am afraid not,” Davita answered. “And I would be far too nervous to go on the stage, besides ...”
    She was just about to say that it was something of which her mother would not have approved, then she thought it would be a mistake to do so.
    Mrs. Jenkins laughed.
    “If yer gets the chance, yer’ll jump at it!”
    Davita did not have to reply, because at that moment the cabman, breathing heavily, came up the stairs with one of her trunks on his back.
    It was impossible for him to get it into the room unless they both moved into the passage, and when finally he brought up the other trunk, Davita thought she would have to climb over them to get into bed.
    Then, having paid the cabman, as she stood looking rather helplessly at her trunks, Mrs. Jenkins said:
    “Now what yer’d better do, dearie, is change yer clothes, clean yerself up a bit, nip round to the Theatre, an’ tell Violet yer’re ’ere.”
    “G-go to the ... Theatre?” Davita questioned.
    “Yeah. Billy’ll get yer a