Читать книгу Delight - Mazo de la Roche - Страница 12

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The tables had been cleared, the floor swept, the crumbs taken up, and the two canaries brought out to have their cages cleaned, before Delight had a chance to speak to May. Suddenly she saw her in the dark cavern of the backstairs. She had set down her mop and pail, and was looking down at Delight with an expression of anxious appeal.

“I’ll be back and finish these cages in a minute,” said the girl to Mrs. Bye. “I must run up to my room for something.”

She could hear May’s breath coming in little gasps, as she stood beside her in the dark stairway.

“Oh,” she panted, “I didn’t get no chance to come down before. That awful old Jessop stuck to me like a leech. Did you find ’im?”

“No.”

“Ow, my Gawd, ’e’s gone! I may never find ’im in this unnatural country!”

“Don’t you take on, May. I know where he is. Boarding in a house up near the station.” She put her strong arm around her friend and supported her. “Don’t take on! We’ll find him.”

May rested her head on Delight’s shoulder, still grasping her mop. “ ’Ow did you find out where ’e’s gone?”

“Why, there was a nice chubby boy in there that I made sure was Albert. He had baby-blue eyes, and I smiled at him, and when he smiled back, there was his teeth a bit apart like you said, and I whispered—‘Remember your May,’ and if he didn’t think I was trying to say he might be sweet on me. He stopped after the others had gone, then I found out he wasn’t Albert, and I got out of him where Albert lives.”

“You didn’t tell ’im about me, did you?”

“He never asked. He was pretty well amazed. He’s a simple lad. I’ll look after him, May.”

“Oh, Delight, ’ow can I ever get a’old of Albert tonight?”

“Look here. There’s a closet between the dining-room and the bar! It’s a dark, narrow one and it isn’t often used now. It has a little frosted glass window in the wall where drinks used to be handed through for the dining-room. And, look here, May, some Nosey Parker of a girl has scraped a bit of the frosting off the pane, just enough to fit the eye, and what’s to prevent you hiding in there tonight and watching for your boy? You say he likes his glass.”

“Oh, ’e does, and ’e’s a little terror all right w’en ’e’s got a bit more than ’e can carry.”

“Well, get him before he takes that much. Scratch on the pane like a little mouse.” In the dusk of the stairway her long eyes were glistening with mischief. “Oo—May, it’d be fun! I wish you’d let me do it for you.”