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The Lion's Share by Arnold Bennett
page 114 of 434 (26%)
had to take heed lest she stumbled. Fortunately, neither widows nor wives
were very prevalent in the Quarter. And Audrey had attained skill in the
use of the state of widowhood. She told no more infantile perilous tales
about husbands who ate peas with a knife. In her thankfulness that the
tyrannic Rosamund had gone to Germany, and that Madame Piriac had vanished
back into unknown Paris, Audrey was at pains to take to heart the lesson of
a semi-hysterical blunder.

She descended the dark, dusty oak stairs utterly content. And at the door
of the gloomy den of the concierge the concierge's wife was standing. She
was a new wife, the young mate of a middle-aged husband, and she had only
been illuminating the den (which was kitchen, parlour, and bedroom in a
space of ten feet by eight) for about a month. She was plump and pretty,
and also she was fair, which was unusual for a Frenchwoman. She wore a
striped frock and a little black apron, and her yellow hair was waved with
art. Audrey offered her the key of the studio with a smile, and, as Audrey
expected, the concierge's wife began to chatter. The concierge's wife loved
to chatter with Anglo-Saxon tenants, and she specially enjoyed chattering
with Audrey, because of the superior quality of Audrey's French and of her
tips. Audrey listened, proud because she could understand so well and
answer so fluently.

The sun, which in May shone on the courtyard for about forty minutes in the
afternoon on clear days, caught these two creatures in the same beam. They
made a delicious sight--Audrey dark, with her large forehead and negligible
nose, and the concierge's wife rather doll-like in the regularity of her
features. They were delicious not only because of their varied charm, but
because they were so absurdly wise and omniscient, and because they had
come to settled conclusions about every kind of worldly problem. Youth and
vitality equalised their ranks, and the fact that Audrey possessed many
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