Page:Stella Dallas, a novel (IA stelladallasnove00prou).pdf/288

278 Blank Street was a narrow, roughly-cobbled sort of alley. There was a row of low brick houses on each side, dilapidated and out of repair. There was a dark damp look to the alley and a dark damp smell, too, that reminded Stella of underground cellar stairs. Unlike most of the other doorways in North Blank Street, 172 still had all three of its digits clinging to the battered brown paint. Stella, standing on the narrow sidewalk, reached up over the two front steps and knocked loudly just below the number. She knocked three times, then receiving no answer, turned the loose knob and walked in.

"Anybody here?" she called up the rickety stairway.

"What yer want?" A young woman of about twenty, with a mop of black bushy hair, cut short, stuck her head out of a door at the rear of the hall.

Stella told her.

"What do you want of him?" the young woman demanded eyeing Stella with interest.

"I want to see him on business."

"Ma," called the woman in a powerful voice. "Here's a lady wants to see Munn on business."

"Ma" came to have a look at Stella, too. Both mother and daughter stared at Stella with hard suspicious eyes. It didn't make Stella flush. She didn't blame them. It did look funny.

"He ain't here any more," crisply "Ma" told Stella.

"Oh, ain't he?" groaned Stella.

"No, he ain't. This is a respectable place. This ain't no dope-den."

"Do you know where he has gone?"