Chapter 6: Chapter 6
He was taken aback to discover that there was not one client waiting but two. The
the middle-aged prosperous-looking man sitting in the client's chair and cloth cap in his hands must be the draper from Bendigo. The other was a woman of severe aspect who had laid her umbrella, gloves, and reticule on the counter until required. She stared frostily at Gabriel who gaped back at her. They had obviously been discussing the extraordinary nature of a land agent who could leave a shop open and clients unattended in the heart of a busy, commercial city.
"It's about time! This is no way to run a business, young man. I don't mind telling you,
just one more minute and I would have walked out of here and taken my business
elsewhere." The woman snapped her reticule shut to emphasize the point.
''E's not the one I saw before," said the draper, with a strong north-country accent.
"T'other was a fat young feller with a shiny black 'at. 'E's a talker, that one. 'e told me to wait, but I can't wait much longer. There's a saying where I come from; 'Time is brass'. I 'haven't got the time nor the brass to be sitting round in Melbourne. I may as
well be back in Bendigo looking after me shop."
To give himself a moment Fox lifted the flap and went behind the counter. He hung his brown hat on the hat stand and turned to face the two clients. He looked at them
blankly, wondering what to say next.
"Well," said the woman. "Is this all that happens? Are you going to ask me what I
want? Or can you recommend a good estate agency where they look after their
business and there is someone in attendance when a customer walks in off the
street?"
Gabriel suddenly jolted into life. "I'm sorry an emergency arose. A client of ours, a Mr.
Gladman wanted to see me urgently. I thought that Mr. ----er! I thought the other gentleman would be here to look after the place. Most unfortunate and I apologize. To
make things more awkward our clerk is off sick today."
"A clerk, eh? And what are you, a partner?"
"Well, I -- er --"
"Make up your mind young man. I think this lady's like me. She wants to deal with principals and not underlings. If you're a clerk I'll leave the address of my hotel with you and I'll be on my way. If I'm not suited somewhere else yon fat man can get in
touch with me and we might be able to do business yet, but I'll be going home by the
afternoon train on Friday -- no later."
"We can discuss the matter," said Fox hurriedly. "I've --- I've just joined the firm, but I
have talked over your needs with -- with my partner and he has gone to arrange to --
to show you a shop that will be very suitable for you. In fact, I can say that it is one of
the best shops that has ever come on to our books."
The draper was eager to hear more but Gabriel was able to put him off.
"My partner is better acquainted with the shop and he has gone to see the proprietor
and I have no doubt when he comes back he will take you straight round to view the
property but if not, say first thing in the morning."
"I 'ope 'e can show it to me today. I'm a man of decision and I 'haven't got much time.
I'll wait for a while; you attend to the lady first. I'll be considering whether or not I'm
wasting my time by sitting here when I could be out and around talking to other
agents."
"You're very kind Mr. er------."
"Kimpton, Fred Kimpton's the name lad. Well known in Bendigo I can assure you. If they want quality and service they can come to Kimpton's. Better service than I've
been getting in Melbourne so far, and that's not saying, mooch." He lapsed into a
silence that did not encourage further conversation.
Gabriel now had to face the woman who was retying the strings of her bonnet as though about to depart. He hoped she would so that he would not have to reveal to
the draper his utter ignorance of anything connected with real estate or the city of
Melbourne.
She finished the bow with a quick jerk and eyed him stonily but obviously was not
going to leave.
"Can I help you, Madam?"
"I've seen you before -- It'll come to me presently. In my business, you can't afford to
forget a face."
Gabriel realized that he knew her too. She had been a first-class passenger on the
Imperia while he had been trying to keep up appearances with the less fortunate passengers traveling third class. She must remember him after his spectacular arrival in first-class during the voyage.
She put aside for a moment the question of identifying the young man. "I have just arrived in Victoria. I could not do anything yesterday because everyone was out of their minds, or away, because of a ridiculous horse race. I have been to five estate agencies this morning, out of which yours gives the worst service. But what I want is a
large house suitable as a boarding house. If I can find a suitable house in a good location
I will open a respectable establishment run on good, sound Christian lines."
"Plenty of people in Bendigo would be glad of another boarding house. You needn't fear missus but you'd be welcome there. It's a growing town; a town with a future.
Bendigo's been good to me and I can't speak too highly of it."
"Then why do you want to open a shop in Melbourne?" snapped the woman. "In such
a fine, growing town like that, wherever it might be, it seems you would be better
opening another shop there where you can look after it properly."
"I didn't coom ten thousand miles from Yorkshire to grow small, missus. This is a growing country and I've got a growing family. I have a mind to import good British
linen and stuff because ere's a market for it here, and Melbourne's the port where
it all cooms. the eldest boy can look after the Bendigo shop and I'll coom 'ere. If we're
going to 'ave Melbourne office it may as well be over a shop where we can sell retail.
Some of the younger ones can help me there. That's why I haven't walked out of this
agency yet. The fat young body was telling me this shop, he knows about, has a
dwelling and extra rooms. It might suit me down to the ground."
The woman turned away and sniffed. She considered herself a cut above the
Yorkshireman socially and was not prepared to discuss the state of trade either in
Bendigo or Melbourne. She returned to the matter that interested her. "A house,
young man. It must be large, clean, and close to the city. I intend to have commercial gentlemen living there and it will need to be handy to warehouses and offices so they can save cab-fares. It's no good showing me a property that's not close to the city.
There will have to be churches within reasonable distance because I will have none but Christians in my boarding house, none of your papists or Mahommedans for me.
It will particularly need to be close to a Wesleyan chapel. That's my faith and I don't mind who knows it. Some shops close by would be an advantage, but I don't care how far it is from the theatres because they're an abomination. Also, find me an area that is free of hotels. Though judging from the number I have seen in walking around this
the place that may be difficult, but at least I expect you to try."
The Yorkshireman scratched his head on hearing the lady's catalog of requirements
and pulled a face at Gabriel behind her back.
"None of the other agencies had anything that might suit?" he inquired hopefully.
"Perhaps; I have some addresses and I shall take a cab later and go around and view them from the outside. If there are any suitable then we shall see about a proper inspection. I was given an address in a street called Victoria Parade that seemed quite promising, but apparently, it is a little far out of town and I understand a brewery has been or is about to be built nearby, and I certainly don't want any gentleman who may be boarding in my house to be assailed with the smell of beer in preparation. I
have lived near breweries in my time and I know how disgusting they can be!"
"Of course! Brewing is an offensive trade. No lady of your type could take a
house anywhere near one of those places. Now, as to finding you a suitable establishment, that is something I must discuss with my partner. He mentioned that
he knew of several large houses that are available but he didn't say where."
"You and your partner should talk to one another more often, and you should write things down. It's no good trying to run a business if you don't communicate. Now
these houses you mention may be very suitable as boarding-houses but how will I
know until I have seen them, and how can I see them if you don't even know where
they are - a fine way to run a land agency."
"I'll get a pen and paper and write down your address," said Gabriel, looking around for the necessary materials. There was none to be seen. He opened and shut several drawers, all new and empty except, for wood-shavings left by the joiners. The woman
looked at this quest with disapproving eyes.
"You don't even have a pen and ink in the office, do you? There probably aren't any
houses for sale either, and you're just wasting my time."
"I assure you---"
"Don't assure me of anything. I don't want your assurances. I want a large house,
cheap, with plenty of bedrooms and a good location. If you can't supply that your
assurances are not any good to me."
Seeing that Fox was recommencing his hopeless hunt for pen and ink the draper
produced a broken piece of tailor's chalk from his waistcoat pocket and handed it to
the harried young man.
"Write on the wall with that, lad. Don't ask me why I've got it in my pocket. I must have slipped it in thereafter I had been marking some cloth. It's better than nowt
because, not being a scholar, I use it for me writing, which has to be big otherwise noone can read it."
Gabriel thanked him and prepared to write the lady's name and address inside one of the drawers. She looked on with disapproval at this unbusinesslike action. "I'm sorry, but we just opened the agency today at nine o'clock and our stationery has not arrived yet. The printers should have delivered it before now: but you know what
these tradesmen are like, they never seem to finish their jobs on time."
"Don't be too hard on the lad, missus," interposed the draper, now coming to Gabriel's defense. "If he's just starting his own business you can't expect him to get
everything right on the first day." He winked at Fox and expressed his opinion of the would-be boarding-house keeper by pulling a face but was somewhat disconcerted when she detected him doing so.
She glared. "I hope you're not expressing an opinion of me with those ugly faces. I
know how to deal with people like you. Just because I'm ten thousand miles from
home and all on my own don't think I'm incapable of protecting myself." Her hand strayed toward the umbrella which was still neatly placed on the counter with her gloves and reticule.
With some presence of mind, Fox placed both hands flat on the counter. One of them
was resting firmly on the umbrella in case the lady had any ideas of avenging her
injured dignity by physical force.
The draper did not apologize. "If I've got an opinion of you missus I can say it in
words. I don't have to pull any faces; and my opinion of you is that you're a psalm-singing, bread-scraping, milk-watering, kill-joy female miser, and I can tell you
straight that you wouldn't be welcome in Bendigo and I pity any poor commercial
gentleman that tries to get a decent meal and bed out of you if he's mad enough to
stay in any boarding-house you manage."
The woman abandoned any appearance of striking the draper with her umbrella.
Instead, she gathered it up, together with her gloves and reticule, and prepared to leave the shop. "This is not the place, nor does it have the type of customers where a
lady could do business. I will not trouble either of you gentlemen," and she put
extreme stress on the word, 'gentlemen,' ''any further."
She had marched a few paces to the door when she swung around and pointed a finger at Gabriel. "Now I remember! You came out on the same ship as me, the 1mperia. You were in third class, in the cheapest part of the ship. I saw you day after day talking,
and laughing, and carrying on with all those bold young women. Servant girls, and slaveys, and daughters of workmen. It was shameless the way they made eyes at you.
They thought you were marvelous and they never asked why, if you were so
wonderful and rich, why you had to travel on the cheap with common people."
She turned on the draper. "His name is Fox. Fox by name and nature I'd say. I saw what was going on in that ship and if you've got any daughters you had better keep
them away from Mr. Fox. He's a man with a reputation that none could be proud of.
Furthermore, during the trip, he managed to worm his way into the first-class under the pretense of playing their piano. He arrived here on Monday, the same as me.''
''I'll warrant he knows as much about Melbourne as I do, which is next to nothing, and why he's passing himself off now as a partner in a city estate agency I don't know. All I
can say to you, Mr. Draper, is to watch him! Just watch!" She turned and marched out of the shop, leaving Gabriel gaping at the door.
What she had said was true. He had flirted mildly with some of the girls in third class. He knew them all, of course, but none had been compromised. In the crowded cabins of a third class voyage, there were men's and women's quarters and no one could be alone. All the time everyone was under the inescapable observation of other passengers and, like his fellow travelers, he was forced on to the deck, as much as the weather permitted, because of crowding below. But all the time he was
thinking of someone else he had seen only briefly.
The time he broke the rules was because of that girl he had seen on the first-class
gangway at London when they embarked at the same moment but were separated by invisible barriers of class and money. She saw him looking at her, and smiled. He waved to her and she waved back. He had never forgotten that look and smile. nor the wave, before they were separated by crowds of passengers pushing up behind them.
Mr. Kimpton broke into his reverie. "There's nothing to be ashamed of incoming out steerage, lad. I did it myself twenty years ago with a wife and small son. It took more than four months by sailing ship and I won't forget that in a hurry. I wasn't ashamed
of it then and I'm not ashamed of it now, and neither should you be."
"I'm not. I'm just surprised that she even remembered my name. I didn't think that
any of the passenger's aft noticed us or what we were doing; let alone that they were
asking our names."
"Well, you're a bit unusual you know. Breaking into first-class from third and being allowed to stay, and play the piano, that doesn't happen every day. As well, there's a
touch of jealousy there. She could see this 'handsome young man surrounded by girls and all on the top of the world, while she's standing aft with a face like sour lemon and no one even passing the time of day for fear they'd have their heads bitten off. Life takes people in funny ways, you know.
As to this other business she mentioned you not being a real estate agent at all,
which, if you arrived in Melbourne on Monday, may not be that far from the truth.
Speak up young man, tell the truth now, and shame the devil. Is there a shop for me at the end of all this talk or 'ave I wasted my time in an interesting but idle experience? I
can spend another five minutes hearing your story, but that's about my limit."
"It's all a sort of whirl!" said Gabriel. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me before. That lady is quite right, you know. I arrived here not knowing anything about the place. I met some wharf laborers who booked me into a cheap hotel. I got a kind
of job in a music store. Then a customer came in who had an interest in some mines at
Walhalla, wherever that may be. He took me to the Melbourne Cup - I came away with
nearly three hundred pounds because a gypsy and a wharf laborer told me to back
Farewell, then the wharf laborer and a boy gave me thirty pounds each to hold for
they and I put it all in the bank this morning, and then I came in here and asked that
young man, you met about property investments."
"What's 'is the name?"
"I don't know. I forgot to ask. I'll find out a soon as he comes back. I know it all sounds
pretty queer but things have just been happening to me since I arrived in Melbourne.
I don't know if I'm going to be swept along like this all the time I'm here."
"It's an exciting place. It may be a bit too exciting for an old feller like me. But what happened to you,? Why did you come back to the office?"
Gabriel thought quickly. The draper was shrewd and obviously a good businessman.
He would not take kindly to a story about an option and a scheme to get an extra
hundred pounds out of him on the sale price of a shop.
"I told him I worked in a music store so he came rushing in a little while ago and
asked me to get around here straight away and talk to you while he got the authority to
sell this property he was telling you about."
"I see. Well, if you started Monday, took Tuesday off, and then cleared out today in the
middle of trading hours I don't suppose there'll be a job for you when you go back."
Gabriel shrugged. "And what did he want you to do? Keep me talking so I couldn't go
to any other agencies?"
Gabriel raised his hands, spread his fingers, and shrugged again. "Something like that.
I hope you are not disappointed when he takes you round to see the premises."
"It's almost worth it just to meet you and yon---whoever he is. I've no doubt you'll continue to fall on your feet. This is not the sort of business I usually deal with but if you can get me a clear title to a property, and it suits me, and it's cheap enough I don't see why I can't do business with you as well anyone else. But no hanky panky,
mind."
They were both quiet for a while, lost in memories. Gabriel was thinking of how he broke the rules, just to see that girl once more. One morning, a week into the voyage,
he shaved and dressed with special care. Then he went up onto the deck and walked past the sign that said No third-class passengers allowed beyond this point. There was a locked gate that was supposed to keep people like him in their place. It was no obstacle, being fairly low. He put his hand on top and vaulted over. Then went downstairs, walked along a passage, and came, after a time, to the second class dining room where the second classers were at breakfast.
He pressed on, still unnoticed, and later, he came to another gate and a sign which
read No second-class passengers allowed beyond this point.
The gate was not a problem and he entered a world of luxury.
The passage was carpeted with thicker and softer floor covering than could be seen elsewhere in the ship. The stateroom doors were of grained timber, numbered, not with painted signs, but adorned with polished brass lettering, and, on each door, was a pasteboard label with the names of the occupants in beautiful copperplate writing.
In this quiet place, the ship engines could be heard still throbbing but the sound was muted by such luxurious surroundings. He walked the length of another passage,
shorter than others, lit by tightly closed portholes so the sounds of sea and engine could not disturb the precious passengers.
Then there was another dining room, smaller than that in second class, but much
superior, and a universe away from the heavy wooden furniture he knew in his part
of the ship.
No one noticed this intrusion, he was well dressed and quiet, and he wandered
around looking for one face in the crowded room.
There she was, sitting at a table for four, with three companions He hesitated. Should he go closer? Should he introduce himself and risk being thrown out? He had no plan
but was just led by a desire to see her again.
At that moment she might have again sensed that he was near, for she looked up, saw
he was puzzled for a moment, then the frown lines disappeared, her eyes opened
wide, and she smiled.
The memory bubble collapsed as Kimpton spoke again. I hope your partner won't be
too much longer.''
Well, whoever he is, told me to take you over to the Royal Mail. I suppose that's a
hotel. Do you know where it is?"
The draper shook his head. "No, and I'm not accustomed to patronizing public houses during working hours. But then I'm a long way from business and I don't care.
But you're payin’, mind. You're the one that wants to keep me here; not t'other way
round."
The Royal Mail was a public house, which was soon found, being on the corner of
Swanston and Bourke Streets. Like the others, it was two-storied with wide verandas sheltering the footpath from sun and rain. Gabriel could have stood in the window and watched Mr. Gladman's music store in Bourke Street if such an idea had appealed to him. He could also look, from another window, to see if anyone entered the estate agency in Swanston Street, but he did not do that either, even though they had gone
away leaving it unlocked.
He and his new friend were standing at the bar, quietly chatting, when the door was
flung open and the young man whose acquaintance they had both made for the first
the time that day came in.