Down Slater Street

Lake County Mail, Issue 2, 5 June 1947, Page 7

Down Slater Street

ROGER BARNETT writes this Complete Story about Slater Street. And Slater Street might be any street, in any town, anywhere. AI last he had found her . . . the i/irl to idiom he could offer no much. I’ul she eume from u different world, where life’s values were seen throiif/h other cues.

'there is a street bordering the Soho district in London where beauty of surrounding is only glimpsed when moonlight mistily silvers the drab buildings. Mark Cranford drove along it and stopped his car outside a tonenment to find an urchin grinning knowingly.

‘ First door inside,” the kid said. “That's our Ella.” Mark slid out of the car and walked into the building, thinking that tlie boy’s expression smacked of naphtha lamps on whelk stalls and costers dancing on Hampstead Heath. Our Ella! It struck a faint warning note in his mind, but that died as Ella Morgan opened the door at his knock.

“I'm lion* on the dot.” he said. “Are vou ready? ”

He gazed down at her, thinking how marvellously the sort him* dress set off her flawless skin and the golden sheen of her hair. Her eyes were sneh a deep blue they looked almost dark as she smiled.

“ Not quite.” she told him. “ Gome

She held open the door and he walked into a large, scantily furnished room, where her mother sat in an invalid chair busy with some exquisite embroidery. She smiled, and Mark realised from whom Ella had inherited her radiant beauty. “ I'm so glad to meet you,” Airs Alorgan said. “ Eve heard a lot about you.” Mark Cranford twinkled down at her as he shook hands. “ I hope it was to my credit.” “ 1 wouldn’t be hearing anything else," Alice Morgan said. “ 1 shouldn’t expect to from Ella.”

She glanced across at her daughter, and it was not pride that shone in her eyes. It was something so much deeper that gave Alark seriously to think as Ella shrugged into her coat and went out with him to the street, where the urchin still hung around. “ I’ve been keeping my eye on the car.” he announced. “ Good old Jimmv.” Ella said.

“ You’re the boy.” She ruffled Jimmy 'Gregg’s tousled hair and shook her head at" Mark as he slipped a hand into his pocket for money.. “ No,” she muruiined. “ Don’t.”

I Ella slid into the ear beside him, but before he could drive away a young couple hove in sight signalling frantically to detain her. “We were coming to see you,” the girl breathed. “ We’ve put the banns up.” “Oh.” Ella murmured. “Lovely!” “ Will you ’’ —Maisie Kendall whispered anxiously—“be bridesmaid?” She gazed at Ella as though the happiness of her wedding day hinged on the answer, while her boy stood beaming behind her. “Who’s best man?” Ella smiled at him. “ Your old pal, Bill? "

“Sure!” he grinned. “Who else?” “It’s a date then,” Ella said. “I can’t resist. Bill.”

She laughed softly and leaned out of the window to wave as Mark drove slowly away. He found her hand on his arm then, and drew up to see her smiling at a huxom woman with a baby cradled in her arms.

“ Isn’t he a darling.” Ella crooned. “And isn't he growing? ” “ He’s a glutton for his food,” Dot Sayers laughed. “I’m taking him to show your mother.” “ You’ll find Maisie and Tom there,” Ella said. “They’ve just fixed the wedding.”

“ With you as bridesmaid?” Ella nodded, and Mark drove away quickly this time to avoid further interruptions of his evening. Tt was very

precious to iiim! It was the culminating moment of all the months since his father had heralded his return from the forces by making him a junior partner and giving him Ella for a secretary, lie had made very tangible progress with liis work, but with Ella—

“ I’ve chosen a quiet place,” he said. “ 1 hope you’ll like it.” ‘■Quiet and distinguished,” Ella murmured. “It would be.” She sat. back smiling in her seat, and the same faint sweet smile hovered about her lips during dinner in an expensive secluded restaurant. He found it fascinating! He found his senses drugged by her nearness all through the show he took her to and as he drove into Hyde Park afterwards, lie 'stopped his car then and sat for a moment with his heart beating fast. “ I’m in love with you.” he said then. “ I want to marry you.” He turned his dark head to her, but she was looking away out of the window, almost as though she had not heard. He sat gazing at her profile and the soft curve of her cheek. “You know all there is to know about me.” he went on then. “ You know my father is a widower and where we live. It’s a big house! It's more than enough to hold Dad and us and your mother — or there's another one near I can buy. It’s a nice place —plenty of air and space —wide views your mother would love.”

“ Wry different from Slater Street."' Ella murmured. “ Yon make it sound attractive.”

“I’m trying very hard,” Mark said

“I want you badly—it’s been that way all along. I. saw you and I knew. I set out all those months ago to make you like me and turn that liking into love. You've known that! You couldn’t have missed realising, and now—Ella! — I want to know. Will you marry me? ” Ella looked at him with something hack of her eyes he could not fathom. “ I’m sorry.” she said. “ I can’t.” “ Why not V ” “ It wouldn't do! “Ella! ” Mark said. “Nonsense! ” Tie drew her hands into his and found them cool and steady, though his own were trembling a little in his urgency. “Why wouldn’t it when I love you?” lie asked. “Why wouldn’t it when I want to live for you and take you away from that drab street into comfort and

a full, sweet life. Ella! You like me—like me a lot ” “ Yes, Mark! ” “Then why wouldn't it do?” “It just wouldn’t.” Ella said gently. “Take me home.”

She drew her hands away, leaving him sick at heart and empty of hope. He drove out of the park and the West End streets into that road where the gaunt outlines of tenements were softened by moonlight. He helped her out and smiled ruefully. “I'll see you to-morrow,” lie said, “ I’ll be boss then.” “ Yes—sir.” she smiled.

She laughed softly and was goneleaving him with the keen edge of his hurt a little dulled. He felt suddenly it wasn’t the end! He drove out to the big house at Hampstead and went into the study to find his father immersed in a chess problem.

“ I proposed to Ella.” Mark said She turned me down.”

“I'm!” his father grunted. Ho shifted a piece on the board and then put it hack again. “ You think there’s no way of settling these problems,” he murmured. “ Then suddenly it’s so' clear you wonder why you didn’t see— —” “Are you talking of chess? ” Mark asked. “Or about what I said?” “ It applies to both.” his father said. “ How was our Ella ? ” Mark gazed at him, thinking it strange he should have heard that expression twice in one evening. Onr Ella! He felt for an absurd moment that his father had used the words deliberately. " Her ‘usual self.” lie said. “ She looked lovely.” “ She is.” John Cranford said softly. “Bless her! ” j He turned to his chess board again,, and Mark went to his room, wondering just why his father had transferred Ella from his own office. He was still pondering the following day at work when he pressed the buzzer for Ella. Ella came in very quietly and took the letters he dictated. “That’s the lot,” he said. “Doing anything Sunday? “Sunday?” Ella murmured thoughtfully. No! ” “We’ll take mother for a drive,” he said. “Is that all right with you?” Ella nodded, and on the Sunday Mark

called for the second time at that te

meat in Slater Street. They wheeled Mrs Moreau nut of the flat and lifted her into the car, and her enjoyment of the afternoon was so vivid that Mark went home strangely elated. He called again a few evenings later to take Ella to the pictures, and it was as they drove back along Slater Street that her hand suddenly gripped his arm. “Mark!” she cried. “Stop!” He stepped on the brake, and before the car stopped she was out and running across the road into a tenement, leaving him wondering at her whispered words —Lucy—out to-night—her little girl “Smoke!” he whispered then. “ Fire! ” He started in fascinated horror as wisps of smoke eddying from a top window thickened to a cloud. He slid out of the car and raced across the road as glass showered down and a wild clamour started. He rushed into the building and up the stairs among people stricken with panic. It was worse as he went higher, and then suddenly he was in thick smoke, groping helplessly. “Ella!” he called over and over. “Ella!” He blundered through the thick smoke into rooms. He was hoarse with shouting and lost to all sense of time. He was aware of a window crashing and a helraeted figure shouting at him.

“She came for a child! ” Mark cried hoarsely. “ She’s in here somewhere.” “We got her off the roof,” the fireman shouted. “ Come out this way.” He reached in for Mark, and somehow he clambered out and down the ladder. “Where is she?” he demanded. “Is she hurt?”.

“ The ambulance took her,” someone told him, “ She’s gone to hospital.” “Hospital! ” Mark said. “Where?” It was only a few minutes away, nnd when he got there they would not let him in. “ She’ll he all right,” they assured him. “You can come Wednesday.”

Mark went away and waited in his ■car outside her home until Mrs Morgan ear outside her home until Mrs Morgan came. She looked so calm, being wheeled along by a big, stolid man that his fears eased a little. “ You mustn’t worry,” she told him. “ Ella's all right.” “ I was too slow,” Mark muttered. “ I

couldn’t And her.” “ She knew the house,” Mrs Morgan comforted him. “ She saved the child.” It seemed a. long while to wait till Wednesday, and when Mark did get to the hospital lie was one of the crowd who seemed to know all about him. He recognised the girl who was getting married. “Will Ella be out in time?” he asked. "Oh. yes,” Maisie said. “We’ll wait.” She muttered to the others, and when a visitor came out of the ward she motioned to him, “ Mi's Morgan’s in there.” she told him. “ You go now.” Mark moved forward urgently and then stopped as though struck. He looked dow.n at her pretty elfin face and shook his head.

• “ I’m one of the crowd,” he muttered “ I’ll wait my turn.”

“Then it’s me! ” Jimmy Cregg cried excitedly: “I’m the next! ”

“ It’s your turn,” someone said at last. “ Ella—she’s bandaged.” “Oh! ” Mark said. “Bandaged! ” He moved away into the ward and down it to a bed beside which Mrs Morgan sat in her wheel chair. She was smiling, and Mark thought suddenly that if she could smile like that “A fine thing this,” he said. “ Resting while I work,” He gazed down at Ella and her eyes smiled at him through one of the slits in the swathed bandages. “Isn’t it?” she whispered. “How’s business? ” “ Im up to my neck in it,” Mark said. •“I’m doing my own typing.” “ Why don’t you get Edna to help you? ” “ She's too busy with Dad,” Mark said. “He’s such a fine man,” Mrs Morgan joined in softly. “He came to see Ella last night.”

Mark gazed at Iter, not surprised that his father was able to arrange a visit out of ordinary hours, but disturbed that he had gone alone and said nothing. He thought the world of his father! His father knew it—knew he was in love with Ella, and yet “He might have brought me with him,” Mark muttered. “He knew how anxious J was.” “ You needn’t be,” Ella whispered. “ I’m all right.” She looked away from him. and. he rose. “ I’ll let someone else come in now,” he said. “ I’ll be down again on Sunday. Is there anything I can bring?” “ Flowers for the ward,” Ella whispered. '“They like flowers here.”

Mark nodded and went out of the hospital to find Jimmy Cregg hanging around his car. “Keeping an eye on it for me?” he said. “Jump in and “ I’ll drive you home.” He sat beside Mark, waving so excitedly to everybody in Slater Street that Mark found himself promising to take him for a ride one day. He drove back to his office then and sat very thoughtful over dinner that night with his father.

“ So you wont to the hospital,” Mark said at last. “What do you thinkwill she he ” “A little scarred?” his father murmured. “ Maybe a little.” “T didn’t mean that! ” Mark choked. “I don’t care about that!” He rose with the knowledge burning steadily in his heart. It wasn’t her beauty! It was something in her —something about her that made Jimmy Cregg and Maisie and all the other folk in Slater Street u I meant well and strong,’ lie muttered. “I meant able to enjoy life.” “She’ll always do that,” his father said softly. “ Ella’s like her mother.” He went out into his study, leaving Mark with the words echoing in his mind. True words! He had sensed it when he had seen them together that night. He had known it when he had proposed to take Ella and her mother out of Slater Street —away from all the people like the stolid man who counted it a privilege to wheel Mrs Morgan to hospital —the girl whose wedding could wait until Ella was about to go —the neighbours and friends—the youngsters like Jimmy

“ First door inside,” Mark muttered —and understood. “That our Ella!” Mark went down to Slater Street the following evening and sat for an hour with Mrs Morgan. He went for a stroll afterwards, and stood for a while gazing reflectively at a building that stood blitzed and empty. It had been a storehouse, but that didn’t matter. It stood flush to the pavement, and that was very important. He found someone he didn’t know smiling at him. '“How’s our Ella?” the man asked. “ Coming home* soon? ” “ Soon! ” Mark said. Yes! ”

He moved on. realising suddenly that he was well known already in that street. He knew it next time he went to the hospital and found himself greeted warmly by Ella’s friends. Mark waited his turn in spite of their urging, and went in to find Ella still swathed in bandages.

“A fuss about nothing,” she. said. “ I was only scorched.’'

“You’ll be a sight,” he laughed. “I shall sack you.”

So it was only my looks! ”

Mark nodded gravely and sat on the edge of the bed. “I was carried away by them.- I dreamed of moonlight nights and luxury places and the soft romantic throb of music. I don’t know why! I’ve never gone for those things veiy much, because what with being in the army —and then my work, and a few interests ” “Youth clubs and hostels! ” “So you know that! ” “A secretary knows all,” Ella laughed softly.

“ I’ve been thinking of that blitzed storeplace in Slater Street,” he went

on hurriedly. “ I been planning to make a house of it —a place with a wide front door so a wheel chair could go in and out easily.”

“Mark! ” Ella whispered. “Please! ” She moved her bandaged hands while Mrs Morgan manipulated her wheel chair away to talk to a woman in another bed. “ I don’t know what I shall be like,” she said. “I may he—my looks ”

“It could be quite a roomy place,” Mark went on placidly. “ I could fix up a bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor for your mother. I've got it planned! I’ve got all the organisation of Cranford the contractors behind me, and if we can’t make something of that old place ”

“ You’re not serious,” Ella whispered. “ You can’t be.” She gazed up at him and then closed her eyes tightly as he bent over to kiss them.

“ I mustn’t keep Jimmy waiting,” he said. “ I’m taking him for a ride.”

He smiled at Mrs Morgan, and it wasn't until after he had gone that the nurse brought in an armful of roses. “Aren’t they lovely?” Elsie said as she followed the nurse. “Isn’t he nice?’

Ella nodded silently and thought of Mark planning a wide front door specially for a wheel chair. She thought of him as she had known him all those months at the office and on the night he had proposed. She had plenty of time for thinking! She had days of it before he came again—edging into the ward after Dot Sayers—his eyes lighting up to find her hands and face unbandaged. Her golden hair was untouched, but her face was faintly mottled.

“A bit lobster-like,” Mark grinned “ But that will go.”

“It’s like love,” Ella smiled. “It’s fast fading.” She held out her hands to him and he took them very gently, because the skin looked so tendei. “ When a girl speaks so lightly of love ” “ Oh, dear," Ella whispered, “ Stop now.” “It means she’s deeply concerned with it,” Mark went on, ts It s in her mind and heart. Ella! T saw something back of your eyes that night I proposed that T couldn’t fathom. It was love! It was lurking there afraid to show itself because I wanted to take you away from something that meant a lot to you and a great deal more to your mother. Slater Street! Its a dingy old place, but you and youi mother light it up. I've seen that! I’ve seen what your mother means to the folk around here and what they moan to her. I've seen what our Ella means to them, and I know now that Dad wanted me to find that out in my own way. I know if you marry me I shall only be sharing • you with your mother—and my Dad—and everybody you’ll meet wherever we may go—but still —would you like to see those plans? ” Mark gazed down at her. watching the colour ebb and flow in her lovely face. “Please!” she whispered, then “ Darling! ”

Mark bent over her joyously while her eyes closed, leaving her lips trembling and defenceless for him to kiss.