But now, even in the darkness, he could see that the paint was peeling from the woodwork on their doors and windows, and that the handsome white faades were cracked and blotchy from neglect. They had porches and pillars and four or five steps going up to their front doors, and it was obvious that once upon a time they had been very swanky residences. There were no shops in this wide street that he was walking along, only a line of tall houses on each side, all of them identical. The big shots up at Head Office were absolutely fantastically brisk all the time. He was trying to do everything briskly these days.īriskness, he had decided, was the one common characteristic of all successful businessmen. He was wearing a new navy-blue overcoat, a new brown trilby hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. 'Find your own lodgings,' he had said, 'and then go along and report to the Branch Manager as soon as you've got yourself settled.'īilly was seventeen years old. But Mr Greenslade at the Head Office in London had told him it was a splendid city. It's about a quarter of a mile along on the other side.'īilly thanked him and picked up his suitcase and set out to walk the quarter-mile to The Bell and Dragon. 'Try The Bell and Dragon,' the porter answered, pointing down the road. 'Excuse me,' he said, 'but is there a fairly cheap hotel not too far away from here?' But the air was deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks.
BILLY WEAVER had travelled down from London on the slow afternoon train, with a change at Swindon on the way, and by the time he got to Bath it was about nine o'clock in the evening and the moon was coming up out of a clear starry sky over the houses opposite the station entrance.
0 kommentar(er)
