Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (72 page)

‘Good-night, Ella!’ ‘Good-night, Sir!’ ‘Good-night.’ And at last they had all gone, as they always did, and the doors were being bolted in silence.

‘Cheery lot to-night,’ said the Governor, coming through the bar, and ‘Yes,’ said Ella, though she really thought they were just about the same as ever. This was one of the Governor’s pet sayings at the end of the day, and she always answered agreeably in the same way – a sort of blessing, as the house settled down in a peaceful hush to its normal and anticipated repose.

But at about half-past ten that night, John, the new waiter at ‘The Midnight Bell,’ coming up tired to bed after a hard day’s work in the job he had taken on, listened, and heard the barmaid weeping.

THE END

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