第100章

By the time they had made all their purchases they had a fairly heavy load.Easton carried the string-bag containing the potatoes and other vegetables, and the meat, and Ruth, the groceries.On their way home, they had to pass the `Cricketers' and just before they reached that part of their journey they met Mr and Mrs Crass, who were also out marketing.They both insisted on Easton and Ruth going in to have a drink with them.Ruth did not want to go, but she allowed herself to be persuaded for she could see that Easton was beginning to get angry with her for refusing.Crass had on a new overcoat and a new hat, with dark grey trousers and yellow boots, and a `stand-up' collar with a bright blue tie.His wife - a fat, vulgar-looking, well-preserved woman about forty - was arrayed in a dark red `motor' costume, with hat to match.Both Easton and Ruth - whose best clothes had all been pawned to raise the money to pay the poor rate - felt very mean and shabby before them.

When they got inside, Crass paid for the first round of drinks, a pint of Old Six for himself; the same for Easton, half a pint for Mrs Easton and threepenny-worth of gin for Mrs Crass.

The Besotted Wretch was there, just finishing a game of hooks and rings with the Semi-drunk - who had called round on the day after he was thrown out, to apologize for his conduct to the Old Dear, and had since then become one of the regular customers.Philpot was absent.

He had been there that afternoon, so the Old Dear said, but he had gone home about five o'clock, and had not been back since.He was almost sure to look in again in the course of the evening.

Although the house was not nearly so full as it would have been if times had been better, there was a large number of people there, for the `Cricketers' was one of the most popular houses in the town.

Another thing that helped to make them busy was the fact that two other public houses in the vicinity had recently been closed up.

There were people in all the compartments.Some of the seats in the public bar were occupied by women, some young and accompanied by their husbands, some old and evidently sodden with drink.In one corner of the public bar, drinking beer or gin with a number of young fellows, were three young girls who worked at a steam laundry in the neighbourhood.Two large, fat, gipsy-looking women: evidently hawkers, for on the floor beside them were two baskets containing bundles of flowers - chrysanthemums and Michaelmas daisies.There were also two very plainly and shabbily dressed women about thirty-five years of age, who were always to be found there on Saturday nights, drinking with any man who was willing to pay for them.The behaviour of these two women was very quiet and their manners unobtrusive.They seemed to realize that they were there only on sufferance, and their demeanour was shamefaced and humble.

The majority of the guests were standing.The floor was sprinkled with sawdust which served to soak up the beer that slopped out of the glasses of those whose hands were too unsteady to hold them upright.

The air was foul with the smell of beer, spirits and tobacco smoke, and the uproar was deafening, for nearly everyone was talking at the same time, their voices clashing discordantly with the strains of the Polyphone, which was playing `The Garden of Your Heart'.In one corner a group of men convulsed with laughter at the details of a dirty story related by one of their number.Several impatient customers were banging the bottoms of their empty glasses or pewters on the counter and shouting their orders for more beer.Oaths, curses and obscene expressions resounded on every hand, coming almost as frequently from the women as the men.And over all the rattle of money, the ringing of the cash register.The clinking and rattling of the glasses and pewter pots as they were being washed, and the gurgling noise made by the beer as it poured into the drinking vessels from the taps of the beer engine, whose handles were almost incessantly manipulated by the barman, the Old Dear and the glittering landlady, whose silken blouse, bejewelled hair, ears, neck and fingers scintillated gloriously in the blaze of the gaslight.

The scene was so novel and strange to Ruth that she felt dazed and bewildered.Previous to her marriage she had been a total abstainer, but since then she had occasionally taken a glass of beer with Easton for company's sake with their Sunday dinner at home; but it was generally Easton who went out and bought the beer in a jug.Once or twice she had bought it herself at an Off Licence beer-shop near where they lived, but she had never before been in a public house to drink.

She was so confused and ill at ease that she scarcely heard or understood Mrs Crass, who talked incessantly, principally about their other residents in North Street where they both resided; and about Mr Crass.She also promised Ruth to introduce her presently - if he came in, as he was almost certain to do - to Mr Partaker, one of her two lodgers a most superior young man, who had been with them now for over three years and would not leave on any account.In fact, he had been their lodger in their old house, and when they moved he came with them to North Street, although it was farther away from his place of business than their former residence.Mrs Crass talked a lot more of the same sort of stuff, to which Ruth listened like one in a dream, and answered with an occasional yes or no.

Meantime, Crass and Easton - the latter had deposited the string-bag on the seat at Ruth's side - and the Semi-drunk and the Besotted Wretch, arranged to play a match of Hooks and Rings, the losers to pay for drinks for all the party, including the two women.Crass and the Semi-drunk tossed up for sides.Crass won and picked the Besotted Wretch, and the game began.It was a one-sided affair from the first, for Easton and the Semi-drunk were no match for the other two.The end of it was that Easton and his partner had to pay for the drinks.