Paul Kelver

PAUL KELVER

decide to engage me I will endeavour to give you every satisfaction. Any time you like to appoint I will call on you. I should not ask a high salary to start with. Yours obediently.”

Dozens of the first letter, hundreds of the second, I wrote with painful care, pen carefully chosen, the one-inch margin down the left hand side of the paper first portioned off with dots. To three or four I received a curt reply, instructing me to call. But the shyness that had stood so in my way during the earlier half of my school days had now, I know not why, returned upon me, hampering me at every turn. A shy child grown-up folks at all events can understand and forgive; but a shy young man is not unnaturally regarded as a fool. I gave the impression of being awkward, stupid, sulky. The more I strove against my temperament the worse I became. My attempts to be at my ease, to assert myself, resulted – I could see it myself – only in rudeness.

“Well, I have got to see one or two others. We will write and let you know,” was the conclusion of each interview, and the end, as far as I was concerned, of the enterprise.

My few pounds, guard them how I would, were dwindling rapidly. Looking back, it is easy enough to regard one’s early struggles from a humorous point of view. One knows the story, it all ended happily. But at the time there is no means of telling whether one’s biography is going to be comedy or tragedy. There were moments when I felt confident it was going to be the latter. Occasionally, when one is feeling well, it is not unpleasant to contemplate with pathetic sympathy one’s own death-bed. One thinks of the friends and relations who at last will understand and regret one, be sorry they had not behaved

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themselves better. But myself, there was no one to regret. I felt very small, very helpless. The world was big. I feared it might walk over me, trample me down, never seeing me. I seemed unable to attract its attention.

One morning I found waiting for me at the Reading Room another of the usual missives. It ran: “Will Mr. P. Kelver call at the above address to-morrow morning between tenthirty and eleven.” The paper was headed: “Lott and Co., Indian Commission Agents, Aldersgate Street.” Without much hope I returned to my lodgings, changed my clothes, donned my silk hat, took my one pair of gloves, drew its silk case over my holey umbrella; and so equipped for fight with Fate made my way to Aldersgate Street. For a quarter of an hour or so, being too soon, I walked up and down the pavement outside the house, gazing at the second-floor windows, behind which, so the door-plate had informed me, were the offices of Lott & Co. I could not recall their advertisement, nor my reply to it. The firm was evidently not in a very flourishing condition. I wondered idly what salary they would offer. For a moment I dreamt of a Cheeryble Brother asking me kindly if I thought I could do with thirty shillings a week as a beginning; but the next I recalled my usual fate, and considered whether it was even worth while to climb the stairs, go through what to me was a painful ordeal, merely to be impressed again with the sense of my own worthlessness.

A fine rain began to fall. I did not wish to unroll my umbrella, yet felt nervous for my hat. It was five minutes to the half hour. Listlessly I crossed the road and mounted the bare stairs to the second floor. Two doors faced me, one marked

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“Private.” I tapped lightly at the second. Not hearing any response, after a second or two I tapped again. A sound reached me, but it was unintelligible. I knocked yet again, still louder. This time I heard a reply in a shrill, plaintive tone:

“Oh, do come in.”

The tone was one of pathetic entreaty. I turned the handle and entered. It was a small room, dimly lighted by a dirty window, the bottom half of which was rendered opaque by tissue paper pasted to its panes. The place suggested a village shop rather than an office. Pots of jam, jars of pickles, bottles of wine, biscuit tins, parcels of drapery, boxes of candles, bars of soap, boots, packets of stationery, boxes of cigars, tinned provisions, guns, cartridges – things sufficient to furnish a desert island littered every available corner. At a small desk under the window sat a youth with a remarkably small body and a remarkably large head; so disproportionate were the two I should hardly have been surprised had he put up his hands and taken it off. Half in the room and half out, I paused.

“Is this Lott & Co.?” I enquired.

“No,” he answered; “it’s a room.” One eye was fixed upon me, dull and glassy; it never blinked, it never wavered. With the help of the other he continued his writing.

“I mean,” I explained, coming entirely into the room, “are these the offices of Lott & Co.?”

“It’s one of them,” he replied; “the back one. If you’re really anxious for a job, you can shut the door.”

I complied with his suggestion, and then announced that I was Mr. Kelver – Mr. Paul Kelver.

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“Minikin’s my name,” he returned, “Sylvanus Minikin. You don’t happen by any chance to know what you’ve come for, I suppose?”

Looking at his body, my inclination was to pick my way among the goods that covered the floor and pull his ears for him. From his grave and massive face, he might, for all I knew, be the head clerk.

“I have called to see Mr. Lott,” I replied, with dignity; “I have an appointment.” I produced the letter from my pocket, and leaning across a sewing-machine, I handed it to him for his inspection. Having read it, he suddenly took from its socket the eye with which he had been hitherto regarding me, and proceeding to polish it upon his pocket handkerchief, turned upon me his other. Having satisfied himself, he handed me back my letter.

“Want my advice?” he asked.

I thought it might be useful to me, so replied in the affirmative.

“Hook it,” was his curt counsel.

“Why?” I asked. “Isn’t he a good employer?”

Replacing his glass eye, he turned again to his work. “If employment is what you want,” answered Mr. Minikin, “you’ll get it. Best employer in London. He’ll keep you going for twenty-four hours a day, and then offer you overtime at half salary.”

“I must get something to do,” I confessed.

“Sit down then,” suggested Mr. Minikin. “Rest while you can.”

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I took the chair; it was the only chair in the room, with the exception of the one Minikin was sitting on.

“Apart from his being a bit of a driver,” I asked, “what sort of a man is he? Is he pleasant?”

“Never saw him put out but once,” answered Minikin. It sounded well. “When was that?” I asked.

“All the time I’ve known him.”

My spirits continued to sink. Had I been left alone with Minikin much longer, I might have ended by following his advice, “hooking it” before Mr. Lott arrived. But the next moment I heard the other door open, and some one entered the private office. Then the bell rang, and Minikin disappeared, leaving the communicating door ajar behind him. The conversation that I overheard was as follows:

“Why isn’t Mr. Skeat here?” “Because he hasn’t come.” “Where are the letters?” “Under your nose.”

“How dare you answer me like that?”

“Well, it’s the truth. They are under your nose.” “Did you give Thorneycroft’s man my message?” “Yes.”

“What did he answer?” “Said you were a liar.”

“Oh, he did, did he! What did you reply?” “Asked him to tell me something I didn’t know.” “Thought that clever, didn’t you?”

“Not bad.”

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Whatever faults might be laid to Mr. Lott’s door, he at least, I concluded, possesssed the virtue of self-control.

“Anybody been here?” “Yes.”

“Who?”

“Mr. Kelver – Mr. Paul Kelver.”

“Kelver, Kelver. Who’s Kelver?” “Know what he is – a fool.” “What do you mean?”

“He’s come after the place.” “Is he there?”

“Yes.”

“What’s he like?”

“Not bad looking; fair – ” “Idiot! I mean is he smart?”

“Just at present – got all his Sunday clothes on.” “Send him in to me. Don’t go, don’t go.”

“How can I send him in to you if I don’t go?”

“Take these. Have you finished those bills of lading?” “No.”

“Good God! when will you have finished them?” “Half an hour after I have begun them.”

“Get out, get out! Has that door been open all the time?” “Well, I don’t suppose it’s opened itself.”

Minikin re-entered with papers in his hand. “In you go,” he said. “Heaven help you!” And I passed in and closed the door behind me.

The room was a replica of the one I had just left. If possible, it was more crowded, more packed with miscellaneous articles.

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I picked my way through these and approached the desk. Mr. Lott was a small, dingy-looking man, with very dirty hands, and small, restless eyes. I was glad that he was not imposing, or my shyness might have descended upon me; as it was, I felt better able to do myself justice. At once he plunged into the business by seizing and waving in front of my eyes a bulky bundle of letters tied together with red tape.

“One hundred and seventeen answers to an advertisement,” he cried with evident satisfaction, “in one day! That shows you the state of the labour market!”

I agreed it was appalling.

“Poor devils, poor devils!” murmured Mr. Lott “what will become of them? Some of them will starve. Terrible death, starvation, Kelver; takes such a long time – especially when you’re young.”

Here also I found myself in accord with him. “Living with your parents?”

I explained to him my situation. “Any friends?”

I informed him I was entirely dependent upon my own efforts.

“Any money? Anything coming in?”

I told him I had a few pounds still remaining to me, but that after that was gone I should be penniless.

“And to think, Kelver, that there are hundreds, thousands of young fellows precisely in your position! How sad, how very sad! How long have you been looking for a berth?”

“A month,” I answered him.

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“I thought as much. Do you know why I selected your letter out of the whole batch?”

I replied I hoped it was because he judged from it I should prove satisfactory.

“Because it’s the worst written of them all.” He pushed it across to me. “Look at it. Awful, isn’t it?”

I admitted that handwriting was not my strong point. “Nor spelling either,” he added, and with truth. “Who do

you think will engage you if I don’t?”

“Nobody,” he continued, without waiting for me to reply. “A month hence you will still be looking for a berth, and a month after that. Now, I’m going to do you a good turn; save you from destitution; give you a start in life.”

I expressed my gratitude.

He waived it aside. “That is my notion of philanthropy: help those that nobody else will help. That young fellow in the other room – he isn’t a bad worker, he’s smart, but he’s impertinent.”

I murmured that I had gathered so much.

“Doesn’t mean to be, can’t help it. Noticed his trick of looking at you with his glass eye, keeping the other turned away from you?”

I replied that I had.

“Always does it. Used to irritate his last employer to madness. Said to him one day: ‘Do turn that signal lamp of yours off, Minikin, and look at me with your real eye.’ What do you think he answered? That it was the only one he’d got, and that he didn’t want to expose it to shocks. Wouldn’t have mattered so much if it hadn’t been one of the ugliest men in London.”

I murmured my indignation.

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“I put up with him. Nobody else would. The poor fellow must live.”

I expressed admiration at Mr. Lott’s humanity.

“You don’t mind work? You’re not one of those good-for- nothings who sleep all day and wake up when it’s time to go home?”

I assured him that in whatever else I might fail I could promise him industry.

“With some of them,” complained Mr. Lott, in a tone of bitterness, “it’s nothing but play, girls, gadding about the streets. Work, business – oh, no. I may go bankrupt; my wife and children may go into the workhouse. No thought for me, the man that keeps them, feeds them, clothes them. How much salary do you want?”

I hesitated. I gathered this was not a Cheeryble Brother; it would be necessary to be moderate in one’s demands. “Five- and-twenty shillings a week,” I suggested.

He repeated the figure in a scream. “Five-and-twenty shillings for writing like that! And can’t spell commission! Don’t know anything about the business. Five-and-twenty! – Tell you what I’ll do: I’ll give you twelve.”

“But I can’t live on twelve,” I explained.

“Can’t live on twelve! Do you know why? Because you don’t know how to live. I know you all. One veal and ham pie, one roley-poley, one Dutch cheese and a pint of bitter.”

His recital made my mouth water.

“You overload your stomachs, then you can’t work. Half the diseases you young fellows suffer from are brought about by overeating.”

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“Now, you take my advice,” continued Mr. Lott; “try vegetarianism. In the morning, a little oatmeal. Wonderfully strengthening stuff, oatmeal: look at the Scotch. For dinner, beans. Why, do you know there’s more nourishment in half a pint of lentil beans than in a pound of beefsteak – more gluten. That’s what you want, more gluten; no corpses, no dead bodies. Why, I’ve known young fellows, vegetarians, who have lived like fighting cocks on sevenpence a day. Seven times seven are forty-nine. How much do you pay for your room?”

I told him.

“Four-and-a-penny and two-and-six makes six-and-seven. That leaves you five and fivepence for mere foolery. Good God! what more do you want?”

“I’ll take eighteen, sir,” I answered. “I can’t really manage on less.”

“Very well, I won’t beat you down,” he answered. “Fifteen shillings a week.”

“I said eighteen,” I persisted.

“Well, and I said fifteen,” he retorted, somewhat indignant at the quibbling. “That’s splitting the difference, isn’t it? I can’t be fairer than that.”

I dared not throw away the one opportunity that had occurred. Anything was better than return to the Reading Rooms, and the empty days full of despair. I accepted, and it was agreed that I should come the following Monday morning.

“Nabbed?” was Minikin’s enquiry on my return to the back office for my hat.

I nodded.

“What’s he wasting on you?”

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