Baynham Street
was one of the ill-conditioned, down-at-heel little roads which
tenaciously fought an uphill fight with encroaching working-class
thoroughfares. Its inhabitants referred with pride to the fact that
Baynham Street overlooked a railway, which view could be obtained by
craning the neck out of window at risk of dislocation. A brawny man
was standing before the open door of No. 11 as Mavis walked up the
steps.
"Is Bill coming?" asked the man, as he furtively lifted his hat.
Mavis looked surprised.
"To chuck out this 'ere lodger for Mrs. Scatchard wo' won't pay
up," he explained.
"I know nothing about it," said Mavis.
"Ain't you Mrs Dancer, Bill's new second wife?"
Mavis explained that she had come to see Miss Meakin, at which the
man walked into the passage and knocked at the first door on the
left, as he called out:
"Lady to see you!"
"Who?" asked Miss Meakin, as she displayed a fraction of a scantily
attired person through the barely opened door.
"Have you forgotten me?" asked Mavis, as she entered the passage.
"Dear Miss Keeves! So good of you to call!" cried Miss Meakin, not a
little affectedly, so Mavis thought, as she raised her hand high
above her head to shake hands with her friend in a manner that was
once considered fashionable in exclusive Bayswater circles.
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