Minty Alley by C.L.R. James

Author:C.L.R. James [James, C. L. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241992654
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2021-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Haynes went to see Ella one day and came back to No. 2 rather grave. Ella was no better and was going to the country to be taken care of by her mother. She had not wanted to go, had held on to the last minute. But Haynes insisted, for her condition was obvious. Ella had hinted that he should move. She said she had a friend who would be able to take her place.

‘You are afraid, Ella, that they will take me away from you. But don’t be afraid. That is impossible. You remember how the nurse tried and I put a stop to it.’

Ella had left it at that, but slyly and respectfully (yet very firmly) she had examined Haynes about how much money he gave Mrs. Rouse, and what she gave him to eat and how long the money lasted and all the various things which she used to manage.

‘Everything is all right, isn’t it, Ella?’ And Ella had had to admit that everything was.

But walking home Haynes had been driven to think of a few things which had never crossed his mind before. Mrs. Rouse, he knew, was in great straits. Where formerly Benoit, Aucher and Wilhelmina helped, now there was only Philomen, and a Philomen who had more to do with every succeeding day. Now and then Mrs. Rouse engaged a boy, but usually he stole the cakes. Some of them complained of the heat of the kitchen, and they were sometimes very rude when Mrs. Rouse asked them as she often had to do to wait a few days before they were paid. And then, too, there was no denying that Mrs. Rouse was a difficult woman to work with in these days. Haynes recalled certain frantic efforts on mornings to borrow a shilling here or eighteen pence there, to help in the making of cakes. There were times when Mrs. Rouse would be walking up and down the yard waiting anxiously for Philomen to find out if her efforts to secure credit for flour or sugar had been successful. He had no right to be adding the burden of his business on hers. And once he began to think that, he thought over it with ever-increasing dissatisfaction with himself and a feeling that he should put his business right at once.

When he reached home he called Philomen and told her that he wanted to speak to her about something – something rather important. Philomen asked if it would take long. Haynes said he thought it would. He would thrash the matter out thoroughly with Philomen and then speak to Mrs. Rouse. Philomen said that Mrs. Rouse had friends – Haynes could hear them in Miss Atwell’s room next door. She was busy cleaning up the kitchen, but in half an hour she would be finished and then she would come.

Haynes had barely finished talking to Philomen when Maisie came into the room.

‘By the way, Maisie,’ said Haynes, ‘Mrs. Rouse’s business is giving her more trouble than before.

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