On Monday, Polly began the "delicate and dangerous task." Instead of going to her pupils by way of the park and the pleasant streets adjoining, she took a roundabout route through
back streets, and thus escaped Mr.
I loafed along the
back streets studying and studying.
My brother could not hear it for the traffic in the main thoroughfares, but by strik- ing through the quiet
back streets to the river he was able to distinguish it quite plainly.
Fortunately it was early, and they went through
back streets, so few people saw them, and no one laughed at the queer party.
The quaint
back streets of Kingston, where they came down to the water's edge, looked quite picturesque in the flashing sunlight, the glinting river with its drifting barges, the wooded towpath, the trim-kept villas on the other side, Harris, in a red and orange blazer, grunting away at the sculls, the distant glimpses of the grey old palace of the Tudors, all made a sunny picture, so bright but calm, so full of life, and yet so peaceful, that, early in the day though it was, I felt myself being dreamily lulled off into a musing fit.
When I struck the town I see there warn't nobody out in the storm, so I never hunted for no
back streets, but humped it straight through the main one; and when I begun to get towards our house I aimed my eye and set it.
Gedge, the landlord of the Royal Oak, who used to turn a bloodshot eye on his neighbours in the village of Shepperton, sum up his opinion of the people in his own parish--and they were all the people he knew--in these emphatic words: "Aye, sir, I've said it often, and I'll say it again, they're a poor lot i' this parish--a poor lot, sir, big and little." I think he had a dim idea that if he could migrate to a distant parish, he might find neighbours worthy of him; and indeed he did subsequently transfer himself to the Saracen's Head, which was doing a thriving business in the
back street of a neighbouring market-town.
One house in a
back street was bright with the cheerful glare of lights; there was the sound of music in it too, and the tread of dancers, and there were cheerful voices, and many a burst of laughter.
By way of experiment, I stepped into a little shop in a queer old
back street, took four gaily decorated boxes of wax matches and three cigars, and laid down a silver piece worth 48 cents.
Appearances are everything, so far as human opinion goes, and the man who will walk down Piccadilly arm in arm with the most notorious scamp in London, provided he is a well-dressed one, will slink up a
back street to say a couple of words to a seedy-looking gentleman.
He did not choose any
back street to-day, but rode slowly, with uplifted head and free glances, along the principal street all the way to the bridge.
and so the dustman says, I believe, with the strongest approval, and so does the marine-store shop in the
back street. Gravely, Handel, for the subject is grave enough, you know how it is, as well as I do.
She lived in a small house in a
back street, but it was clean and tidy.
At the first second-hand clothing shop I came to, up a
back street, I got a rough rig suitable for a common seaman who might be going on a cold voyage, and bound up my face with a liberal bandage, saying I had a toothache.
I remember, before entering the park, I stood awhile to contemplate the statue of General Belliard, and then I advanced to the top of the great staircase just beyond, and I looked down into a narrow
back street, which I afterwards learnt was called the Rue d'Isabelle.
