Angel Pavement

_because he is not only a good friend and a fine publisher, but also because he is a London man and will know what I am getting at in this London novel._

Many people who think they know the City well have been compelled to admit that they do not know Angel Pavement. You could go wandering half a dozen times between Bunhill Fields...

“No, they’re sending somebody. Good job, too! We don’t want you off half the morning. You’ll stop in and do a bit of work, my son, for a change. Do you good.”

Seated at his table, looking through the morning’s letters, as he was now, Howard Bromport Dersingham might have been accepted as a typical specimen of the smart younger City ma...

“Good, very good. Well, look here, Smeeth, I shan’t be back this afternoon. Nothing important, is there? You just carry on then--and then--er--you know, finish off, sign anythin...

Mr. Smeeth grunted impatiently. Edna annoyed him these days. He had been very fond of her when she was a child--and, for that matter, he was still fond of her--but now she had a...

“No, I didn’t,” said Mr. Smeeth slowly. “That’s all right, George. Only don’t take all night about it, that’s all. Oh!--there’s just another thing.” He hesitated a moment. “Some...

T. Benenden looked rather pained, and still nursed the two shillings change in his hand. “Well, what I mean is this. That’s a big combine, isn’t it? A year ago, they were bang a...

Actually, what Mr. Dersingham and Mr. Golspie did get on with was an invitation to dinner, delivered by Mr. Dersingham and accepted by Mr. Golspie. It had come to that. There we...

“Now let me see,” Mrs. Dersingham began, as usual, feeling that these guests were not people now but six enormous bodies of which she, the wretched criminal, had to dispose. “No...

“Oh, it was too ridiculous,” cried Mrs. Dersingham, despairingly racking her brains to remember something amusing in that letter, or, failing that, something amusing in any lett...

“Beg your pardon, Mr. Smeeth. Of course, you don’t. I do, though. Oo, it’s sorful,” cried Turgis earnestly. “’S’not getting any better either. Well I’m glad you told me, Mr. Sme...

“Ar, well,” Mr. Pelumpton continued, philosophically, “we’ve got a lot to put with in our bishnish. And you can take that from me, Mishter Turgish. But if the shtuff’sh there, w...

A faint sweet whiff of scent had come his way. His senses did not wait for any more evidence; they reported at once to his imagination, which immediately dowered the vague dark...

“My friends,” he began, without any hesitation, “the title of my lecture this evening is Understanding and Yew. Let me commence by talking about Yew, jast Yew. Perhaps yew don’t...

The Burpenfield Club, called after Lady Burpenfield, who had given five thousand pounds to the original fund; was one of the residential clubs or hostels provided for girls who...

“But what I was about to say is this. I want you to use your influence with my little girl to persuade her to come with her old father and join her life with mine. There’s some...

“You ought to come and see us at the College next time you’re home, Lilian,” he said. “You’d like it. We’ve got one or two amusing fellows on the staff, and the students aren’t...

Half an hour afterwards, Mr. Golspie, wearing an enormous ulster, looked in on them. “You won’t see me for a week or two,” he announced cheerfully. “Keep it going. Shoulders to...

Both George and Edna, however, unsatisfactory as their general outlook might be, seemed to be going on all right just then, and this too was a great source of pleasure to Mr. Sm...

His seat was not very comfortable, high up too, but he liked the look of the place, with its bluey-green walls and gilded organ-pipes and lights shining through holes in the roo...

Left to himself, Mr. Smeeth came to the conclusion once again that his wife was to be envied. She made a great fuss, far more noise than he ever did, but she didn’t really disli...

Fred did, but Mr. Smeeth, by a tremendous effort, contrived not to listen, although Fred’s voice more than filled the room. Indeed, there was so much of it that it was possible...

And yet, of course, this was not entirely true. There were innumerable people in London who were not only ready to make the acquaintance of Turgis, but were actually longing for...

“She hasn’t got a bank account,” Mr. Smeeth continued, “and apparently the girl’s got through all the money her father left her--these girls, my word, they think we’re made of m...

“Have another then. We’ll just have one more and then we’ll eat.” After the second one, he felt larger and more important and even happier than he had done before. He insisted u...

They did not dance long, however, for Lena announced that she was too tired and that he was too clumsy. She turned off one of the two shaded lights and went and stood by the fir...

Miss Matfield said she had no intention of doing so, and then hurried into her room, where she came to the conclusion, as she tidied herself for dinner, that it was really Tatte...

Outside the office it was as bad, if not worse. She had her presents to buy, which meant frantic rushes to the shops during lunchtime or the short space left to her in the eveni...

“You could go anywhere looking like that, believe me,” he assured her. “But I suppose you mean you’re not all dressed up. That doesn’t matter. We’re not going where they’re slin...

“Home to bed!” the other sneered. “T-t-t-t-t-talk like a dam’ fool. Bed!” Then he recollected himself. “All I wanner do is to wish thish young lady a Hap-py New Year.” And he ma...

“What again! I’m surprised you don’t go and live there. You’ve been once this week, haven’t you? Yes, I thought so. And I suppose you’ll be wanting to go on Saturday. That’ll be...

“No, no, not at all,” the large man shouted. “We’ve ten minutes yet. Plenty of time for another. What is it? Same again? Three double Scotches, miss. I ’aven’t told you yet what...

On Tuesday morning, Mr. Golspie and Mr. Dersingham spent more than an hour talking together in the private office, and Mr. Smeeth, whose chief duty during that time was to exami...

She sounded confident enough, but Mr. Smeeth did not know whether to believe her or not. As he left the hospital, a clammy air of dissolution and mortality clung to him. Barbica...

“Yersh,” said Mr. Pelumpton, as he shuffled into the conjugal bedroom, three-quarters of an hour later, “e’sh jusht come in, proper blue look on ’im, too. No, I didn’t arshk ’im...

At the corner of the Strand and Wellington Street the bus turned and then stopped, and there he left it and began walking eastward. He had no destination, no plan; his mind issu...

He made a great deal of noise now. Putting out a hand, quite instinctively, to the tap of the gas-fire, he touched something hot in the darkness there, gave a sharp cry, and ban...

It was coming to a close like any other Friday afternoon. They were short-handed, for though the new boy, Gregory Thorpe from Hatcham, S.E., a lad with a singularly long face an...

“Well, I must say I don’t remember you saying anything. Anyhow, it’s too late now. You know, Smeeth, that fellow’s robbed me just as much as if he’d broken into my flat--it’s wo...

“Yes,” Miss Matfield continued hurriedly. “He’s gone, and that means there’ll be an awful lot to do and they’ll have to get new people. Well, I’m going down to Angel Pavement in...

She was not depressed. In a few weeks, she might be miserable--she knew that too; she seemed to know everything to-night--but now, at this moment, she might have just had good n...

Mr. Golspie laughed too, companionably. They strolled round the deck, on which Miss Lena Golspie, in a fur coat and with a scarlet scarf about her neck, soon made an appearance,...