Chapter 103 Chapter 103

Madame Athelny lent Philip some money.This was enough money to pay off the rent owed to the landlady, who would allow him to take his belongings away.For five shillings and a pawn-ticket for a suit, he got a frock-coat from the pawnbroker, which fitted him quite well.He redeemed the rest of the clothes.He told Carter Patterson to take his case to Harrington Street, and on Monday morning he and Athelny went up to the store to report for duty.Athelny introduced him to the stocker in the clothing department and left.The buyer's name was Sampson, he was about thirty years old, and he was a quick, fussy little man.He shook Philip's hand, and then, to show off the depth of his knowledge which he was quite proud of, asked Philip if he spoke French.There was a look of surprise on Philip's face when he replied that he would.

"Can you speak other languages?" "I also speak German." "Ouch! I go to Paris now and then. Parlez-yous francais? Ever been to Maxim's?" Philip was assigned to stand at the top of the stairs in the clothing department.It was his job to direct people to various departments.According to Mr. Sampson's leaks, there are quite a few departments here.Suddenly, Sampson noticed that Philip was walking with a limp. "What's the matter with your leg?" asked Mr. Sampson. "I have a lame foot," replied Philip, "but it doesn't prevent me from walking or anything."

The stocker stared suspiciously at Philip's limp for a moment.Philip thought to himself that he was puzzled by the manager's appointment.Philip knew so well that the manager did not notice his inconvenience at all. "I don't expect you to get everything right the first day. If you have any doubts, just ask the young girls." After all, Sampson turned and left.Philip tried to keep the location of this and that department in his mind, and looked eagerly for the customers who came to ask him.The clock struck one, and he went upstairs to lunch.The restaurant is located on the top floor of this building.The long dining room was spacious and brightly lit, all the windows were closed to prevent dust from entering, and the hall was filled with a foul smell of cooking oil.There were long tables covered with tablecloths, carafes filled with water at every few tables, and a salt shaker and bottles of vinegar in the middle of the room.The shop assistants crowded into the dining room noisily, and sat on the long benches, which had not yet cooled down from the boiling heat of the group of shop assistants who had come to eat at half past twelve.

"No pickles at all," said the man sitting next to Philip. He was a young man, slender, with a hooked nose set into his pale face.His head was large and uneven, as if he had been pressed here and there, with a strange appearance, and his forehead and neck were covered with red and swollen pimples.His name is Harris.Philip noticed that on some days there were large soup pots at the end of the table, containing all sorts of common pickles.There are no knives and forks in the restaurant.After a while, a tall and fat manservant in a white coat came into the dining room with several handfuls of pickles in his hand, and threw the pickles on the dining table with a bang, and everyone stretched out their hands to get what they needed.The pickles were hot and greasy just out of the dirty water.Several male servants in white jackets were distributing pork on the dining table in circles, and slices of pork kept floating in the soup basin.Each of these servants was like a magician. With a quick movement, they put pots of meat on the dining table, splashing broth all over the table.Then came a large plate of cabbage and potatoes.Seeing this made Philip sick to his stomach.He noticed that the other shop assistants kept pouring vinegar over the dishes.The noise in the restaurant was deafening.People talked, laughed, and yelled loudly, mixed with the banging of knives and forks and the strange sound of chewing food.Philip was delighted to be back in the clothing department.He gradually memorized the location of each department, and when someone asked for directions, he rarely turned to other shop assistants for help.

"First turn on the right. Second turn on the left, ma'am." When business was quiet, one or two shopgirls would come and accost Philip, and it seemed to him that they were looking at him.At five o'clock he was again called up to the dining-room for tea.He wished he could sit for a while.There was bread slathered with butter, and many of the clerks had bottles of jam, which had been kept in the "pantry," with their respective names written on them. When the shops closed at six-thirty Philip was exhausted.Harris—the young man who sat next to Philip at lunch—offered to take Philip to Harrington Street to identify his bed.Harris told Philip that there was an empty bed in his room, and that the other rooms were full, and that he wanted Philip to sleep with him.The house on Harrington Street used to be a boot shop, which is now used as a dormitory.However, the light in the room is very dark, because three-quarters of the window area is blocked by wooden boards, and the wooden boards have not been removed so far, and the gap left at the top of the window is the only ventilation in the house.There was a musty smell in the room, and Philip was glad he didn't have to live in such a place.Harris took him up to the living room on the second floor, where there was a piano with keys that looked like a row of decayed teeth.On the table is an uncovered cigarette tube containing dominoes.Back issues of The Strand and The Illustrated were strewn about the floor.The other rooms are used as bedrooms.The bedroom where Philip was going to live was on the top floor of the house.There are a total of six beds in the room, and there is either a large suitcase or a small cardboard box next to each bed.The only furniture was a wardrobe with four large drawers and two small drawers.Philip as the newcomer can use one of the drawers.The drawers are all keyed, but the keys are the same, so it doesn't matter if they are keyed or not.Harris persuaded Philip to lock his modestly valuable items in the trunk.A mirror hung over the fireplace.Harris also led Philip to look at the bathroom. This room is not small in size. There are eight washbasins in a row, and all the people who live here use water here.The washroom communicates with the bathroom.There are two discolored and blackened bathtubs in the bathroom, the wooden parts are covered with soap stains, and circles of water marks in the basin indicate that the bathers used different amounts of water.When Harris and Philip returned to the bedroom, they saw a tall man changing clothes, and a boy of about sixteen combing his hair and whistling vigorously.After a minute or two the tall man turned around and walked out without speaking to anyone.Harris winked at the boy, and the boy, still whistling, winked back at Harris.Harris told Philip that the man's name was Pryor, he was from the army, and he was working in the silk department.This person never socializes with people, but goes to see his girlfriend every night, just like before, without even saying "good night".After a while, Harris himself left, leaving the boy alone.The boy looked at Philip curiously while he unpacked.His name was Bell, and he worked for nothing in the sewing department.He was very interested in Philip's evening dress.He also told Philip about the other people in the room, and asked Philip various questions about him.He was a lively boy, and during the conversation he hummed from time to time in a half-husky voice a few songs from the vaudeville theater.After packing up his things, Philip went out and walked around the streets and alleys, looking at the endless stream of people there, and occasionally stood outside the restaurant door and watched people rushing in.At this time, he felt hungry, so he bought a small fruit bread and ate it while walking.He had received a key to the front door from the porter who turned off the gas lamps every night at half past eleven.Philip was afraid of being shut out, so he hurried back to the dormitory in time.He had already learned the specifics of the fine: if he returned to the dormitory after eleven o'clock in the evening, he would be fined one shilling, and after half past eleven he would be fined two and a half shillings.In addition, you have to report to the store.If you are reported three times in a row, you will be fired from your job.

When Philip returned to the dormitory, except for the soldier who did not come back, the rest were in the dormitory, and two of them had already got under the covers.As soon as his feet stepped into the dormitory, a burst of shouts rushed towards him. "Oh, Clarence! Rascal!" Philip realized that Bell had put his evening dress on the bolster.Bell is quite proud of his masterpiece. "Clarence, you should wear this dress to a social evening." "If you're not careful, you'll end up with the most beautiful woman in Lane's company." Philip had heard about the social evening, for the fellows were full of complaints about the company keeping part of their wages.Two shillings a month were deducted for medical bills and for borrowing out of the library's tattered novels.But an additional four shillings were deducted every month, said to pay for laundry, and Philip found that a quarter of his six shillings a week never came to him.

Several people were nibbling on bread and sausages.The clerks eat these sandwiches for dinner.The sandwiches were bought at twopence a little from a little shop a few doors down.At this moment, the soldier staggered in, took off his clothes quietly and swiftly, and fell down on the bed with a loud sound.At ten past eleven the gas-lamps flickered, and five minutes later the lights went out.At this time, the soldier had already sounded asleep, while several other men in pajamas crowded in front of the big window, throwing leftover sandwiches at the women who passed by below, still yelling. Not four bad words.A six-story building opposite is a Jewish tailor workshop, and it closes at eleven o'clock every night.The rooms were brightly lit, with no shutters on the windows.The factory owner's daughter--there were five in the family, father, mother, two little boys, and a young girl of twenty--went out to turn off the lights in various parts of the building.Occasionally, she allowed one of the tailors to play tricks on her.The clerks who shared Philip's dormitory watched the two men following the girl with interest, and made bets on which of the two men would succeed.Towards midnight, when the Harrington Arms closed, they, too, went to bed.Bell's bed was next to the door, and he jumped from one bed to another, and finally returned to his own bed, still talking non-stop.Finally, the surroundings were completely silent, and the soldier's even slight snoring could be heard from time to time.Meanwhile Philip went to bed too.

At seven o'clock the next morning Philip was awakened by a loud bell.At a quarter past seven they were all dressed and stockinged, and hurried downstairs for their boots.They buckled up their boots as they ran, and hurried to breakfast in the Oxford Street shop.The restaurant opens at eight o'clock.If you arrive one minute late, you don't eat; after entering the store, you are not allowed to go out to buy breakfast.Sometimes, knowing that they could not arrive at the store on time, they would buy three or two pieces of bread from a small store near the dormitory and keep them in their pockets.However, this is too expensive, so most people go to work on an empty stomach and work until lunch.Philip ate some bread and butter, drank a cup of tea, and at eight-thirty began his day's work again.

"First turn on the right. Second turn on the left, ma'am." Then, he mechanically answered various questions.The work is tedious and tiring.A few days later, his legs were so painful that he couldn't stand upright. The thick soft carpet burned his feet even more, making them painful. At night, it was very painful to take off his socks.In this regard, the shop assistants complained.His fellow waiters told him that his feet were sweating so badly that his socks and boots were rotten.Those who shared his dormitory suffered the same thing, sleeping with their feet outside the covers to ease the pain.At first Philip could hardly move a step, and for several nights he had to sit in the living room of the Harrington dormitory with his feet in the cold water.On such occasions his only companion was the boy Belle, for he often stayed in the dormitory to organize his collection of stamps.While he was bundling stamps with small strips, he kept whistling.