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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10785 ***
+
+SAILORS' KNOTS
+
+By W.W. Jacobs
+
+
+1909
+
+
+
+"MATRIMONIAL OPENINGS"
+
+
+Mr. Dowson sat by the kitchen fire smoking and turning a docile and well-
+trained ear to the heated words which fell from his wife's lips.
+
+"She'll go and do the same as her sister Jenny done," said Mrs. Dowson,
+with a side glance at her daughter Flora; "marry a man and then 'ave to
+work and slave herself to skin and bone to keep him."
+
+"I see Jenny yesterday," said her husband, nodding.  "Getting quite fat,
+she is."
+
+"That's right," said Mrs. Dowson, violently, "that's right!  The moment I
+say something you go and try and upset it."
+
+"Un'ealthy fat, p'r'aps," said Mr. Dowson, hurriedly; "don't get enough
+exercise, I s'pose."
+
+"Anybody who didn't know you, Joe Dowson," said his wife, fiercely,
+"would think you was doing it a purpose."
+
+"Doing wot?"  inquired Mr. Dowson, removing his pipe and regarding her
+open-mouthed.  "I only said----"
+
+"I know what you said," retorted his wife.  "Here I do my best from
+morning to night to make everybody 'appy and comfortable; and what
+happens?"
+
+"Nothing," said the sympathetic Mr. Dowson, shaking his head.  "Nothing."
+
+"Anyway, Jenny ain't married a fool," said Mrs. Dowson, hotly; "she's got
+that consolation."
+
+"That's right, mother," said the innocent Mr. Dowson, "look on the bright
+side o' things a bit.  If Jenny 'ad married a better chap I don't suppose
+we should see half as much of her as wot we do."
+
+"I'm talking of Flora," said his wife, restraining herself by an effort.
+"One unfortunate marriage in the family is enough; and here, instead o'
+walking out with young Ben Lippet, who'll be 'is own master when his
+father dies, she's gadding about with that good-for-nothing Charlie
+Foss."
+
+Mr. Dowson shook his head.  "He's so good-looking, is Charlie," he said,
+slowly; "that's the worst of it.  Wot with 'is dark eyes and his curly
+'air----"
+
+"Go on!" said his wife, passionately, "go on!"
+
+Mr. Dowson, dimly conscious that something was wrong, stopped and puffed
+hard at his pipe.  Through the cover of the smoke he bestowed a
+sympathetic wink upon his daughter.
+
+"You needn't go on too fast," said the latter, turning to her mother.  "I
+haven't made up my mind yet.  Charlie's looks are all right, but he ain't
+over and above steady, and Ben is steady, but he ain't much to look at."
+
+"What does your 'art say?" inquired the sentimental Mr. Dowson.
+
+Neither lady took the slightest notice.
+
+"Charlie Foss is too larky," said Mrs. Dowson, solemnly; "it's easy come
+and easy go with 'im.  He's just such another as your father's cousin
+Bill--and look what 'appened to him!"
+
+Miss Dowson shrugged her shoulders and subsiding in her chair, went on
+with her book, until a loud knock at the door and a cheerful, but
+peculiarly shrill, whistle sounded outside.
+
+[Illustration: "Miss Dowson, subsiding in her chair, went on with her
+book."]
+
+"There is my lord," exclaimed Mrs. Dowson, waspishly; "anybody might
+think the 'ouse belonged to him.  And now he's dancing on my clean
+doorstep."
+
+"Might be only knocking the mud off afore coming in," said Mr. Dowson, as
+he rose to open the door.  "I've noticed he's very careful."
+
+"I just came in to tell you a joke," said Mr. Foss, as he followed his
+host into the kitchen and gazed tenderly at Miss Dowson--"best joke I
+ever had in my life; I've 'ad my fortune told--guess what it was!  I've
+been laughing to myself ever since."
+
+"Who told it?" inquired Mrs. Dowson, after a somewhat awkward silence.
+
+"Old gypsy woman in Peter Street," replied Mr. Foss.  "I gave 'er a wrong
+name and address, just in case she might ha' heard about me, and she did
+make a mess of it; upon my word she did."
+
+"Wot did she say?" inquired Mr. Dowson.
+
+Mr. Foss laughed.  "Said I was a wrong 'un," he said, cheerfully, "and
+would bring my mother's gray hairs to the grave with sorrow.  I'm to 'ave
+bad companions and take to drink; I'm to steal money to gamble with, and
+after all that I'm to 'ave five years for bigamy.  I told her I was
+disappointed I wasn't to be hung, and she said it would be a
+disappointment to a lot of other people too.  Laugh!  I thought I should
+'ave killed myself."
+
+"I don't see nothing to laugh at," said Mrs. Dowson, coldly.
+
+"I shouldn't tell anybody else, Charlie," said her husband.  "Keep it a
+secret, my boy."
+
+"But you--you don't believe it?" stammered the crestfallen Mr. Foss.
+
+Mrs. Dowson cast a stealthy glance at her daughter.  "Its wonderful 'ow
+some o' those fortune-tellers can see into the future," she said, shaking
+her head.
+
+"Ah!" said her husband, with a confirmatory nod.  "Wonderful is no name
+for it.  I 'ad my fortune told once when I was a boy, and she told me I
+should marry the prettiest, and the nicest, and the sweetest-tempered gal
+in Poplar."
+
+Mr. Foss, with a triumphant smile, barely waited for him to finish.
+"There you--" he began, and stopped suddenly.
+
+[Illustration: "I just came in to tell you a joke."]
+
+"What was you about to remark?" inquired Mrs. Dowson, icily.
+
+"I was going to say," replied Mr. Foss--"I was going to say--I 'ad just
+got it on the tip o' my tongue to say, 'There you--you--you 'ad all the
+luck, Mr. Dowson.'"
+
+He edged his chair a little nearer to Flora; but there was a chilliness
+in the atmosphere against which his high spirits strove in vain.  Mr.
+Dowson remembered other predictions which had come true, notably the case
+of one man who, learning that he was to come in for a legacy, gave up a
+two-pound-a-week job, and did actually come in for twenty pounds and a
+bird-cage seven years afterwards.
+
+[Illustration: "He edged his chair a little nearer to Flora."]
+
+"It's all nonsense," protested Mr. Foss; "she only said all that because
+I made fun of her.  You don't believe it, do you, Flora?"
+
+"I don't see anything to laugh at," returned Miss Dowson.  "Fancy five
+years for bigamy!  Fancy the disgrace of it!"
+
+"But you're talking as if I was going to do it," objected Mr. Foss.  "I
+wish you'd go and 'ave your fortune told.  Go and see what she says about
+you.  P'r'aps you won't believe so much in fortune-telling afterwards."
+
+Mrs. Dowson looked up quickly, and then, lowering her eyes, took her hand
+out of the stocking she had been darning and, placing it beside its
+companion, rolled the pair into a ball.
+
+"You go round to-morrow night, Flora," she said, deliberately.  "It
+sha'n't be said a daughter of mine was afraid to hear the truth about
+herself; father'll find the money."
+
+"And she can say what she likes about you, but I sha'n't believe it,"
+said Mr. Foss, reproachfully.
+
+"I don't suppose it'll be anything to be ashamed of," said Miss Dowson,
+sharply.
+
+Mr. Foss bade them good-night suddenly, and, finding himself accompanied
+to the door by Mr. Dowson, gave way to gloom.  He stood for so long with
+one foot on the step and the other on the mat that Mr. Dowson, who
+disliked draughts, got impatient.
+
+[Illustration: "Mr. Foss bade them good-night suddenly."]
+
+"You'll catch cold, Charlie," he said at last.
+
+"That's what I'm trying to do," said Mr. Foss; "my death o' cold.  Then I
+sha'n't get five years for bigamy," he added bitterly.
+
+"Cheer up," said Mr. Dowson; "five years ain't much out of a lifetime;
+and you can't expect to 'ave your fun without--"
+
+He watched the retreating figure of Mr. Foss as it stamped its way down
+the street, and closing the door returned to the kitchen to discuss
+palmistry and other sciences until bedtime.
+
+Mrs. Dowson saw husband and daughter off to work in the morning, and
+after washing up the breakfast things drew her chair up to the kitchen
+fire and became absorbed in memories of the past. All the leading
+incidents in Flora's career passed in review before her.  Measles,
+whooping-cough, school-prizes, and other things peculiar to the age of
+innocence were all there.  In her enthusiasm she nearly gave her a
+sprained ankle which had belonged to her sister.  Still shaking her head
+over her mistake, she drew Flora's latest portrait carefully from its
+place in the album, and putting on her hat and jacket went round to make
+a call in Peter Street.
+
+By the time Flora returned home Mrs. Dowson appeared to have forgotten
+the arrangement made the night before, and, being reminded by her
+daughter, questioned whether any good could come of attempts to peer into
+the future.  Mr. Dowson was still more emphatic, but his objections,
+being recognized by both ladies as trouser-pocket ones, carried no
+weight.  It ended in Flora going off with half a crown in her glove and
+an urgent request from her father to make it as difficult as possible for
+the sibyl by giving a false name and address.
+
+No name was asked for, however, as Miss Dowson was shown into the untidy
+little back room on the first floor, in which the sorceress ate, slept,
+and received visitors.  She rose from an old rocking-chair as the visitor
+entered, and, regarding her with a pair of beady black eyes, bade her sit
+down.
+
+"Are you the fortune-teller?" inquired the girl.
+
+"Men call me so," was the reply.
+
+"Yes, but are you?" persisted Miss Dowson, who inherited her father's
+fondness for half crowns.
+
+"Yes," said the other, in a more natural voice.
+
+She took the girl's left hand, and pouring a little dark liquid into the
+palm gazed at it intently.  "Left for the past; right for the future,"
+she said, in a deep voice.
+
+She muttered some strange words and bent her head lower over the girl's
+hand.
+
+[Illustration: "She muttered some strange words and bent her head lower
+over the girl's hand."]
+
+"I see a fair-haired infant," she said, slowly; "I see a little girl of
+four racked with the whooping-cough; I see her later, eight she appears
+to be.  She is in bed with measles."
+
+Miss Dowson stared at her open-mouthed.
+
+"She goes away to the seaside to get strong," continued the sorceress;
+"she is paddling; she falls into the water and spoils her frock; her
+mother----"
+
+"Never mind about that," interrupted the staring Miss Dowson, hastily.
+"I was only eight at the time and mother always was ready with her
+hands."
+
+"People on the beach smile," resumed the other.  "They
+
+"It don't take much to make some people laugh," said Miss Dowson, with
+bitterness.
+
+"At fourteen she and a boy next door but seven both have the mumps."
+
+"And why not?" demanded Miss Dowson with great warmth.  "Why not?"
+
+"I'm only reading what I see in your hand," said the other.  "At fifteen
+I see her knocked down by a boat-swing; a boy from opposite brings her
+home."
+
+"Passing at the time," murmured Miss Dowson.
+
+"His head is done up with sticking-plaster.  I see her apprenticed to a
+dressmaker.  I see her----"
+
+The voice went on monotonously, and Flora, gasping with astonishment,
+listened to a long recital of the remaining interesting points in her
+career.
+
+"That brings us to the present," said the soothsayer, dropping her hand.
+"Now for the future."
+
+She took the girl's other hand and poured some of the liquid into it.
+Miss Dowson shrank back.
+
+"If it's anything dreadful," she said, quickly, "I don't want to hear it.
+It--it ain't natural."
+
+"I can warn you of dangers to keep clear of," said the other, detaining
+her hand.  "I can let you peep into the future and see what to do and
+what to avoid.  Ah!"
+
+She bent over the girl's hand again and uttered little ejaculations of
+surprise and perplexity.
+
+"I see you moving in gay scenes surrounded by happy faces," she said,
+slowly.  "You are much sought after.  Handsome presents and fine clothes
+are showered upon you.  You will cross the sea.  I see a dark young man
+and a fair young man.  They will both influence your life.  The fair
+young man works in his father's shop.  He will have great riches."
+
+"What about the other?" inquired Miss Dowson, after a somewhat lengthy
+pause.
+
+The fortune-teller shook her head.  "He is his own worst enemy," she
+said, "and he will drag down those he loves with him.  You are going to
+marry one of them, but I can't see clear--I can't see which."
+
+"Look again," said the trembling Flora.
+
+"I can't see," was the reply, "therefore it isn't meant for me to see.
+It's for you to choose.  I can see them now as plain as I can see you.
+You are all three standing where two roads meet.  The fair young man is
+beckoning to you and pointing to a big house and a motor-car and a
+yacht."
+
+"And the other?" said the surprised Miss Dowson.
+
+"He's in knickerbockers," said the other, doubtfully.  "What does that
+mean?  Ah, I see!  They've got the broad arrow on them, and he is
+pointing to a jail.  It's all gone--I can see no more."
+
+She dropped the girl's hand and, drawing her hand across her eyes, sank
+back into her chair.  Miss Dowson, with trembling fingers, dropped the
+half crown into her lap, and, with her head in a whirl, made her way
+downstairs.
+
+After such marvels the streets seemed oddly commonplace as she walked
+swiftly home.  She decided as she went to keep her knowledge to herself,
+but inclination on the one hand and Mrs. Dowson on the other got the
+better of her resolution.  With the exception of a few things in her
+past, already known and therefore not worth dwelling upon, the whole of
+the interview was disclosed.
+
+"It fair takes your breath away," declared the astounded Mr. Dowson.
+
+"The fair young man is meant for Ben Lippet," said his wife, "and the
+dark one is Charlie Foss.  It must be.  It's no use shutting your eyes to
+things."
+
+"It's as plain as a pikestaff," agreed her husband.  "And she told
+Charlie five years for bigamy, and when she's telling Flora's Fortune she
+sees 'im in convict's clothes.  How she does it I can't think."
+
+"It's a gift," said Mrs. Dowson, briefly, "and I do hope that Flora is
+going to act sensible.  Anyhow, she can let Ben Lippet come and see her,
+without going upstairs with the tooth-ache."
+
+"He can come if he likes," said Flora; "though why Charlie couldn't have
+'ad the motor-car and 'im the five years, I don't know."
+
+Mr. Lippet came in the next evening, and the evening after.  In fact, so
+easy is it to fall into habits of an agreeable nature that nearly every
+evening saw him the happy guest of Mr. Dowson.  A spirit of resignation,
+fostered by a present or two and a visit to the theatre, descended upon
+Miss Dowson.  Fate and her mother combined were in a fair way to
+overcome her inclinations, when Mr. Foss, who had been out of town on a
+job, came in to hear the result of her visit to the fortune-teller, and
+found Mr. Lippet installed in the seat that used to be his.
+
+At first Mrs. Dowson turned a deaf ear to his request for information,
+and it was only when his jocularity on the subject passed the bounds of
+endurance that she consented to gratify his curiosity.
+
+"I didn't want to tell you," she said, when she had finished, "but you
+asked for it, and now you've got it."
+
+"It's very amusing," said Mr. Foss.  "I wonder who the dark young man in
+the fancy knickers is?"
+
+"Ah, I daresay you'll know some day," said Mrs. Dowson.
+
+"Was the fair young man a good-looking chap?" inquired the inquisitive
+Mr. Foss.
+
+Mrs. Dowson hesitated.  "Yes," she said, defiantly.
+
+"Wonder who it can be?"  muttered Mr. Foss, in perplexity.
+
+"You'll know that too some day, no doubt," was the reply.
+
+"I'm glad it's to be a good-looking chap," he said; "not that I think
+Flora believes in such rubbish as fortune-telling.  She's too sensible."
+
+"I do," said Flora.  "How should she know all the things I did when I was
+a little girl?  Tell me that."
+
+"I believe in it, too," said Mrs. Dowson.  "P'r'aps you'll tell me I'm
+not sensible!"
+
+Mr. Foss quailed at the challenge and relapsed into moody silence.  The
+talk turned on an aunt of Mr. Lippet's, rumored to possess money, and an
+uncle who was "rolling" in it.  He began to feel in the way, and only his
+native obstinacy prevented him from going.
+
+It was a relief to him when the front door opened and the heavy step of
+Mr. Dowson was heard in the tiny passage.  If anything it seemed heavier
+than usual, and Mr. Dowson's manner when he entered the room and greeted
+his guests was singularly lacking in its usual cheerfulness.  He drew a
+chair to the fire, and putting his feet on the fender gazed moodily
+between the bars.
+
+"I've been wondering as I came along," he said at last, with an obvious
+attempt to speak carelessly, "whether this 'ere fortune-telling as we've
+been hearing so much about lately always comes out true."
+
+"It depends on the fortune-teller," said his wife.
+
+"I mean," said Mr. Dowson, slowly, "I mean that gypsy woman that Charlie
+and Flora went to."
+
+"Of course it does," snapped his wife.  "I'd trust what she says afore
+anything."
+
+"I know five or six that she has told," said Mr. Lippet, plucking up
+courage; "and they all believe 'er.  They couldn't help themselves; they
+said so."
+
+"Still, she might make a mistake sometimes," said Mr. Dowson, faintly.
+"Might get mixed up, so to speak."
+
+"Never!" said Mrs. Dowson, firmly.
+
+"Never!" echoed Flora and Mr. Lippet.
+
+Mr. Dowson heaved a big sigh, and his eye wandered round the room.  It
+lighted on Mr. Foss.
+
+"She's an old humbug," said that gentleman.  "I've a good mind to put the
+police on to her."
+
+Mr. Dowson reached over and gripped his hand.  Then he sighed again.
+
+"Of course, it suits Charlie Foss to say so," said Mrs. Dowson;
+"naturally he'd say so; he's got reasons.  I believe every word she says.
+If she told me I was coming in for a fortune I should believe her; and if
+she told me I was going to have misfortunes I should believe her."
+
+"Don't say that," shouted Mr. Dowson, with startling energy.  "Don't say
+that.  That's what she did say!"
+
+"What?" cried his wife, sharply.  "What are you talking about?"
+
+"I won eighteenpence off of Bob Stevens," said her husband, staring at
+the table.  "Eighteenpence is 'er price for telling the future only, and,
+being curious and feeling I'd like to know what's going to 'appen to me,
+I went in and had eighteenpennorth."
+
+"Well, you're upset," said Mrs. Dowson, with a quick glance at him.  "You
+get upstairs to bed."
+
+"I'd sooner stay 'ere," said her husband, resuming his seat; "it seems
+more cheerful and lifelike.  I wish I 'adn't gorn, that's what I wish."
+
+"What did she tell you?" inquired Mr. Foss.
+
+Mr. Dowson thrust his hands into his trouser pockets and spoke
+desperately.  "She says I'm to live to ninety, and I'm to travel to
+foreign parts----"
+
+"You get to bed," said his wife.  "Come along."
+
+Mr. Dowson shook his head doggedly.  "I'm to be rich," he continued,
+slowly--"rich and loved.  After my pore dear wife's death I'm to marry
+again; a young woman with money and stormy brown eyes."
+
+Mrs. Dowson sprang from her chair and stood over him quivering with
+passion.  "How dare you?" she gasped.  "You--you've been drinking."
+
+"I've 'ad two arf-pints," said her husband, solemnly.  "I shouldn't 'ave
+'ad the second only I felt so miserable.  I know I sha'n't be 'appy with
+a young woman."
+
+Mrs. Dowson, past speech, sank back in her chair and stared at him.
+
+"I shouldn't worry about it if I was you, Mrs. Dowson," said Mr. Foss,
+kindly.  "Look what she said about me.  That ought to show you she ain't
+to be relied on."
+
+"Eyes like lamps," said Mr. Dowson, musingly, "and I'm forty-nine next
+month.  Well, they do say every eye 'as its own idea of beauty."
+
+A strange sound, half laugh and half cry, broke from the lips of the
+over-wrought Mrs. Dowson.  She controlled herself by an effort.
+
+"If she said it," she said, doggedly, with a fierce glance at Mr. Foss,
+"it'll come true.  If, after my death, my 'usband is going to marry a
+young woman with--with----"
+
+"Stormy brown eyes," interjected Mr. Foss, softly.
+
+"It's his fate and it can't be avoided," concluded Mrs. Dowson.
+
+"But it's so soon," said the unfortunate husband.  "You're to die in
+three weeks and I'm to be married three months after."
+
+Mrs. Dowson moistened her lips and tried, but in vain, to avoid the
+glittering eye of Mr. Foss.  "Three!" she said, mechanically, "three!
+three weeks!"
+
+"Don't be frightened," said Mr. Foss, in a winning voice.  "I don't
+believe it; and, besides, we shall soon see!  And if you don't die in
+three weeks, perhaps I sha'n't get five years for bigamy, and perhaps
+Flora won't marry a fair man with millions of money and motor-cars."
+
+"No; perhaps she is wrong after all, mother," said Mr. Dowson, hopefully.
+
+Mrs. Dowson gave him a singularly unkind look for one about to leave him
+so soon, and, afraid to trust herself to speech, left the room and went
+up-stairs.  As the door closed behind her, Mr. Foss took the chair which
+Mr. Lippet had thoughtlessly vacated, and offered such consolations to
+Flora as he considered suitable to the occasion.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Matrimonial Openings, by W.W. Jacobs
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10785 ***