The Lodger Read Online Free PDF Page B

going up the kitchen stair,
she suddenly remembered Mr. Sleuth's request for a Bible. Putting
the tray down in the hall, she went into her sitting-room and took
up the Book; but when back in the hall she hesitated a moment as to
whether it was worth while to make two journeys. But, no, she
thought she could manage; clasping the large, heavy volume under
her arm, and taking up the tray, she walked slowly up the
staircase.
      But a great surprise awaited her; in fact, when Mr.
Sleuth's landlady opened the door of the drawing-room she very
nearly dropped the tray. She actually did drop the Bible, and it
fell with a heavy thud to the ground.
      The new lodger had turned all those nice framed
engravings of the early Victorian beauties, of which Mrs. Bunting
had been so proud, with their faces to the wall!
      For a moment she was really too surprised to speak.
Putting the tray down on the table, she stooped and picked up the
Book. It troubled her that the should have fallen to the ground;
but really she hadn't been able to help it - it was mercy that the
tray hadn't fallen, too.
      Mr. Sleuth got up. "I - I have taken the liberty to
arrange the room as I should wish it to be," he said awkwardly.
"You see, Mrs. - er - Bunting, I felt as I sat here that these
women's eyes followed me about. It was a most unpleasant sensation,
and gave me quite an eerie feeling."
      The landlady was now laying a small tablecloth over
half of the table. She made no answer to her lodger's remark, for
the good reason that she did not know what to say.
      Her silence seemed to distress Mr. Sleuth. After
what seemed a long pause, he spoke again.
      "I prefer bare walls, Mrs. Bunting," he spoke with
some agitation. "As a matter of fact, I have been used to seeing
bare walls about me for a long time." And then, at last his
landlady answered him, in a composed, soothing voice, which somehow
did him good to hear. "I quite understand, sir. And when Bunting
comes in he shall take the pictures all down. We have plenty of
space in our own rooms for them."
      "Thank you - thank you very much."
      Mr. Sleuth appeared greatly relieved.
      "And I have brought you up my Bible, sir. I
understood you wanted the loan of it?"
      Mr. Sleuth stared at her as if dazed for a moment;
and then, rousing himself, he said, "Yes, yes, I do. There is no
reading like the Book. There is something there which suits every
state of mind, aye, and of body too - "
      "Very true, sir." And then Mrs. Bunting, having laid
out what really looked a very appetising little meal, turned round
and quietly shut the door.
      She went down straight into her sitting-room and
waited there for Bunting, instead of going to the kitchen to clear
up. And as she did so there came to her a comfortable recollection,
an incident of her long-past youth, in the days when she, then
Ellen Green, had maided a dear old lady.
      The old lady had a favourite nephew - a bright,
jolly young gentleman, who was learning to paint animals in Paris.
And one morning Mr. Algernon - that was his rather peculiar
Christian name - had had the impudence to turn to the wall six
beautiful engravings of paintings done by the famous Mr.
Landseer!
      Mrs. Bunting remembered all the circumstances as if
they had only occurred yesterday, and yet she had not thought of
them for years.
      It was quite early; she had come down - for in those
days maids weren't thought so much of as they are now, and she
slept with the upper housemaid, and it was the upper housemaid's
duty to be down very early - and, there, in the dining-room, she
had found Mr. Algernon engaged in turning each engraving to the
wall! Now, his aunt thought all the world of those pictures, and
Ellen had felt quite concerned, for it doesn't do for a young
gentleman to put himself wrong with a kind aunt.
      "Oh, sir," she had exclaimed in dismay, "whatever
are you doing?" And even now she could almost hear his merry voice,
as he had answered, "I am