the shop had one window in king's cross road, but the entrance, with another window, was in riceyman steps. the king's cross road window held only cheap editions, in their paper jackets, of popular modern novels, such as those of ethel m. dell, charles garvice, zane grey, florence barclay, nat gould, and gene stratton porter. the side window was set out with old books, first editions, illustrated editions, and complete library editions in calf or morocco of renowned and serious writers, whose works, indispensable to the collections of self-respecting book-gentlemen (as distinguished from bookmen), have passed through decades of criticism into the impregnable paradise of eternal esteem. the side window was bound to attract the attention of collectors and bibliomaniacs. it seemed strangely, even fatally, out of place in that dingy and sordid neighbourhood where existence was a dangerous and difficult adventure in almost frantic quest of food, drink and shelter, where the familiar and beloved landmarks were public-houses, and where the immense majority of the population read nothing but sporting prognostications and results, and, on sunday mornings, accounts of bloody crimes and juicy sexual irregularities.
nevertheless, the shop was, in fact, well placed in riceyman steps. it had a picturesque air, and riceyman steps also had a picturesque air, with all its outworn shabbiness, grime and decay. the steps leading up to riceyman square, the glimpse of the square at the top, with its church bearing a massive cross on the west front, the curious perpendicular effects of the tall, blind, ochreish houses—all these touched the imagination of[pg 5] every man who had in his composition any unusually strong admixture of the universal human passion—love of the past. the shop reinforced the appeal of its environment. the shop was in its right appropriate place. to the secret race of collectors always ravenously desiring to get something for much less than its real value, the window in riceyman steps was irresistible. and all manner of people, including book-collectors, passed along king's cross road in the course of a day. and all the collectors upon catching sight of the shop exclaimed in their hearts: "what a queer spot for a bookshop! bargains!..." moreover, the business was of old date and therefore had firmly established connexions quite extra-local. scores of knowing persons knew about it, and were proud of their knowledge. "what!" they would say with affected surprise to acquaintances of their own tastes. "you don't know riceyman steps, king's cross road? best hunting-ground in london!" the name "riceyman" on a signboard, whose paint had been flaking off for twenty years, also enhanced the prestige of the shop, for it proved ancient local associations. riceyman must be of the true ancient blood of clerkenwell.
the customer, with his hands behind him and his legs somewhat apart, was staring at a case of calf-bindings. a short, carefully dressed man, dapper and alert, he had the air neither of a bookman nor of a member of the upper-middle class.
"sorry to keep you waiting. i just had to slip out, and i've nobody else here," said the bookseller quietly and courteously, but with no trace of obsequiousness.
"not at all!" replied the customer. "i was very interested in the books here."
the bookseller, like many shopkeepers a fairly sure judge of people, perceived instantly that the customer must have acquired deportment from somewhere after adolescence, together with the art of dressing. there was abruptness in his voice, and the fact was that he had learnt manners above his original station in a strange place—palestine, under allenby.[pg 6]
"i suppose you haven't got such a thing as a shakspere in stock; i mean a pretty good one?"
"what sort of a shakspere? i've got a number of shaksperes."
"well, i don't quite know.... i've been thinking for a long time i ought to have a shakspere."
"illustrated?" asked the bookseller, who had now accurately summed up his client as one who might know something of the world, but who was a simpleton in regard to books.
"i really haven't thought." the customer gave a slight good-humoured snigger. "i suppose it would be nice to have pictures to look at."
"i have a good clean boydell, and a dalziel. but perhaps they'd be rather big."
"um!"
"you can't hold them, except on a desk or on your knee."
"ah! that wouldn't do! oh, not at all!" the customer, who was nonplussed by the names mentioned, snatched at the opportunity given to decline them.
"i've got a nice little edition in eight volumes, very handy, with outline drawings by flaxman, and nicely printed. you don't often see it. not like any other shakspere i know of. quite cheap too."
"um!"
"i'll see if i can put my hand on it."
the shop was full of bays formed by bookshelves protruding at right-angles from the walls. the first bay was well lighted and tidy; but the others, as they receded into the gloomy backward of the shop, were darker and darker and untidier and untidier. the effect was of mysterious and vast populations of books imprisoned for ever in everlasting shade, chained, deprived of air and sun and movement, hopeless, resigned, martyrized. the bookseller stepped over piles of cast books into the farthest bay, which was carpeted a foot thick with a disorder of volumes, and lighted a candle.
"you don't use the electric light in that corner," said[pg 7] the client, briskly following. he pointed to a dust-covered lamp in the grimy ceiling.
"fuse gone. they do go," the bookseller answered blandly; and the blandness was not in the least impaired by his private thought that the customer's remark came near to impudence. searching, he went on: "we're not quite straight here yet. the truth is, we haven't been straight since 1914."
"dear me! five years!"
another piece of good-humoured cheek.
"i suppose you couldn't step in to-morrow?" the bookseller suggested, after considerable groping and spilling of tallow.
"afraid not," said the customer with polite reluctance. "very busy ... i was just passing and it struck me."
"the globe edition is very good, you know ... standard text. macmillans. nothing better of the sort. i could sell you that for three-and-six."
"sounds promising," said the customer brightly.
the bookseller blew out the candle and dusted one hand with the other.
"of course it's not illustrated."
"oh, well, after all, a shakspere's for reading, isn't it?" said the customer, for whom shakspere was a volume, not a man.
while the bookseller was wrapping up the green globe shakspere in a creased bit of brown paper with an addressed label on it—he put the label inside—the customer cleared his throat and said with a nervous laugh:
"i think you employ here a young charwoman, don't you?"
the bookseller looked up in mild surprise, peering. he was startled and alarmed, but his feelings seldom appeared on his face.
"i do." he thought: "what is this inquisitive fellow getting at? it's not what i call manners, anyhow."
"her name's elsie, i think. i don't know her surname."[pg 8]
the bookseller went on with his packing and said naught.
"as i'm here i thought i might as well ask you," the customer continued with a fresh nervous laugh. "i ought to explain that my name's raste, dr. raste, of myddelton square. dare say you've heard of me. from your name your family belongs to the district?"
"yes," agreed the bookseller. "i do."
he was very proud of the name riceyman, and he did not explain that it was the name only of his deceased uncle, and that his own name was earlforward.
"i've got a lad in my service," the doctor continued. "shell-shock case. he's improving, but i find he's running after this girl elsie. quite o.k., of course. most respectable. only it's putting him off his work, and i just thought as i happened to be in here you wouldn't mind me asking you about her. is she a good girl? i'd like him to marry—if it's the right sort. might do him a lot of good."
"she's right enough," answered the bookseller calmly and indifferently. "i've nothing against her."
"had her long?"
"oh, some time."
the bookseller said no more. beneath his impassive and courteous exterior he hid a sudden spasm of profound agitation. the next minute dr. raste departed, but immediately returned.
"afraid your books outside are getting a bit wet," he cried from the doorway.
"thank you. thank you," said the bookseller mildly and unperturbed, thinking: "he must be a managing and interfering kind of man. can't i run my own business?"
some booksellers kept waterproof covers for their outside display, but this one did not. he had found in practice that a few drops of rain did no harm to low-priced volumes.
