Ten Pollitt Place (1957) by C. H. B. Kitchin

Author:C. H. B. Kitchin [Kitchin, C. H. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2017-06-07T21:00:00+00:00

XII

THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

By now, the trappings of Christmas had made their way from the shops into private houses. In the Pollitts, a hundred front doors had opened to welcome bundles of holly and mistletoe, with their trails of dropped berries, soon to be squashed on carpets. Mantelpieces were decorated with calendars and cards that fluttered or fell in a draught. Drawers and odd corners were filled with gifts, gay gummed labels, coloured string, wrapping-paper, boxes of crackers and festive novelties. Store-cupboards were crammed with delicacies in cartons and tins and jars. The great orgy of spending was under way, though the great orgy of consuming was yet to come.

Nor did this spirit of enterprise confine itself to the privacy of the home. It had a public aspect. The nice Americans who lived in the Terrace, and had given the firework party on Guy Fawkes Day, were the first to hang a big garland of holly and mistletoe, tied with red satin ribbon, to the knocker of their front-door, while if one was lucky enough to have a view of their small garden at the back of the house, one could see them decorating a well-grown Christmas-tree with fairies, gnomes, butterflies, glass ornaments and coloured lanterns, all guaranteed to stand the English climate. Mrs Muller described it minutely to Miss Tredennick, who struggled into her sitting-room to inspect it. On the floor below, Dorothy whiled away many happy moments in the same fashion. Justin, from his bedroom window, had a glimpse of its higher branches waving above the level of three garden-walls, but the sight increased his seasonable gloom. Only the Mullers in their basement-kitchen had no view of it at all.

However, Ten Pollitt Place was not altogether eclipsed. Those who peeped down through the area railings could see, in the Mullers’ sitting-room, a miniature version of a very Protestant Crib, with the chief emphasis on the animals, and illuminated by fat Swedish candles. Mrs Muller would have liked a garland on the front door, but Miss Tredennick feared it might damage the paint.

But it was Dorothy who gave the house its cachet. Inspired by the Americans’ example, she asked Robert to fix up a small Christmas-tree on the balcony, for the benefit of anyone passing by in the street. As always, he was only too glad to have an excuse for using his hands, and did the work well. The tree was lit up by minute electric lights which went off and on and changed colour in rotation. A disadvantage was that the carol-singers made a bee-line for the house and loitered by it long after they had exhausted their repertoire. Miss Tredennick told Mrs Muller to give five shillings—in five separate instalments—to singers who showed real talent. If they showed none, instead of getting a penny to go into the next street, they got a scolding for the inadequacy of their performance. Miss Tredennick had said, ‘I will not be blackmailed by mere cacophony,’ and Mrs Muller had to translate the dictum as best she could.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.