Dorothy's Double Part I

CHAPTER I


A slatternly woman was standing at the entrance of a narrow court in one
of the worst parts of Chelsea. She was talking to a neighbour belonging
to the next court, who had paused for a moment for a gossip in her
passage towards a public-house.

'Your Sal is certainly an owdacious one,' she said. 'I saw her yesterday
evening when you were out looking for her. I told her she would get it
hot if she didn't get back home as soon as she could, and she jest
laughed in my face and said I had best mind my own business. I told her
I would slap her face if she cheeked me, and she said, "I ain't your
husband, Mrs. Bell, and if you were to try it on you would find that I
could slap quite as hard as you can."'

'She is getting quite beyond me, Mrs. Bell. I don't know what to do with
her. I have thrashed her as long as I could stand over her, but what is
the good? The first time the door is open she just takes her hook and I
don't see her again for days. I believe she sleeps in the Park, and I
suppose she either begs or steals to keep herself. At the end of a week
maybe she will come in again, just the same as if she had only been out
for an hour. "How have you been getting on since I have been away?" she
will say. "No one to scrub your floor; no one to help you when you are
too drunk to find your bed," and then she laughs fit to make yer blood
run cold. Owdacious ain't no name for that wench, Mrs. Bell. Why, there
ain't a boy in this court of her own size as ain't afraid of her. She is
a regular tiger-cat, she is; and if they says anything to her, she just
goes for them tooth and nail. I shan't be able to put up with her ways
much longer. Well, yes; I don't mind if I do take a two of gin with
you.'