Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/98

 her exceeding use of soap and water, her aloofness from gossip. She had a deadly pale baby; also there was the pale hunchbacked boy of near Dicky's age. Collectively, the Ropers were disliked as strangers, because they furnished their own room, in an obnoxiously complete style; because Roper did not drink, nor brawl, nor beat his wife, nor do anything all day but look for work; because all these things were a matter of scandalous arrogance, impudently subversive of Jago custom and precedent. Mrs. Perrott was bad enough, but such people as these. . . . ..

Dicky had never before seen quite such a room as this. Everything was so clean; the floor, the windows, the bedclothes. Also there was a strip of old carpet on the floor. There were two perfectly sound chairs, and two pink glass vases on the mantelpiece; and a clock. Nobody was in the room, and Dicky took a