The Complete Short Stories

Ward nodded, relaxing back around the circular red-wood table. He played with the tassel of the arsenic-green lamp shade, for a moment felt like a Victorian man of letters, leading a spacious, leisurely life among overstuffed furnishings.

‘I’m all for it,’ he agreed, indicating the empty corners. ‘There’s plenty of room here. But we’ll have to make sure they don’t gossip about it.’

After due precautions, they let the two girls into the secret, enjoying their astonishment at finding this private universe.

‘We’ll put a partition across the middle,’ Rossiter explained, ‘then take it down each morning. You’ll be able to move in within a couple of days. How do you feel?’

‘Wonderful!’ They goggled at the wardrobe, squinting at the endless reflections in the mirrors.

There was no difficulty getting them in and out of the house. The turnover of tenants was continuous and bills were placed in the mail rack. No one cared who the girls were or noticed their regular calls at the cubicle.

However, half an hour after they arrived neither of them had unpacked her suitcase.

‘What’s up, Judith?’ Ward asked, edging past the girls’ beds into the narrow interval between the table and wardrobe.

Judith hesitated, looking from Ward to Rossiter, who sat on the bed, finishing off the plywood partition. ‘John, it’s just that..

Helen Waring, more matter-of-fact, took over, her fingers straightening the bed-spread. ‘What Judith’s trying to say is that our position here is a little embarrassing. The partition is—’

Rossiter stood up. ‘For heaven’s sake, don’t worry, Helen,’ he assured her, speaking in the loud whisper they had all involuntarily cultivated. ‘No funny business, you can trust us. This partition is as solid as a rock.’

The two girls nodded. ‘It’s not that,’ Helen explained, ‘but it isn’t up all the time. We thought that if an older person were here, say Judith’s aunt — she wouldn’t take up much room and be no trouble, she’s really awfully sweet — we wouldn’t need to bother about the partition — except at night,’ she added quickly.

Ward glanced at Rossiter, who shrugged and began to scan the floor.

‘Well, it’s an idea,’ Rossiter said. ‘John and I know how you feel. Why not?’

‘Sure,’ Ward agreed. He pointed to the space between the girls’ beds and the table. ‘One more won’t make any difference.’

The girls broke into whoops. Judith went over to Rossiter and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Sorry to be a nuisance, Henry.’ She smiled at him. ‘That’s a wonderful partition you’ve made. You couldn’t do another one for Auntie — just a little one? She’s very sweet but she is getting on.’

‘Of course,’ Rossiter said. ‘I understand. I’ve got plenty of wood left over.’

Ward looked at his watch. ‘It’s seven-thirty, Judith. You’d better get in touch with your aunt. She may not be able to make it tonight.’

Judith buttoned her coat. ‘Oh she will,’ she assured Ward. ‘I’ll be back in a jiffy.’

The aunt arrived within five minutes, three heavy suitcases soundly packed.

‘It’s amazing,’ Ward remarked to Rossiter three months later. ‘The size of this room still staggers me. It almost gets larger every day.’

Rossiter agreed readily, averting his eyes from one of the girls changing behind the central partition. This they now left in place as dismantling it daily had become tiresome. Besides, the aunt’s subsidiary partition was attached to it and she resented the continuous upsets. Ensuring she followed the entrance and exit drills through the camouflaged door and cubicle was difficult enough.

Despite this, detection seemed unlikely. The room had obviously been built as an afterthought into the central well of the house and any noise was masked by the luggage stacked in the surrounding corridor. Directly below was a small dormitory occupied by several elderly women, and Judith’s aunt, who visited them socially, swore that no sounds came through the heavy ceiling. Above, the fanlight let out through a dormer window, its lights indistinguishable from the hundred other bulbs in the windows of the house.

Rossiter finished off the new partition he was building and held it upright, fitting it into the slots nailed to the wall between his bed and Ward’s. They had agreed that this would provide a little extra privacy.

‘No doubt I’ll have to do one for Judith and Helen,’ he confided to Ward.

Ward adjusted his pillow. They had smuggled the two armchairs back to the furniture shop as they took up too much space. The bed, anyway, was more comfortable. He had never become completely used to the soft upholstery.

‘Not a bad idea. What about some shelving around the wall? I’ve got nowhere to put anything.’

The shelving tidied the room considerably, freeing large areas of the floor. Divided by their partitions, the five beds were in line along the rear wall, facing the mahogany wardrobe. In between was an open space of three or four feet, a further six feet on either side of the wardrobe.