THEY   ARRIVE	21
into a fierce reverie, in which the figure of Mr. Cross,
who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, the two rooms
between the City Road and the black Regent's Canal
that were her home, Mrs. Tomlinson, the woman she
was going to clean for later in the morning, and the
image of a pound of stewing steak, all played their parts,
Then she returned to the General Office.
This time, she noticed its existence, and what she saw
suddenly gave her a little fright. She had been a bit
too hasty (her old fault) about that note. It really did
want a good tidying. She had neglected it a bit lately,
because for the last three mornings she had been late,
all because she was not getting her proper sleep, and all
because Mrs. Williams and her husband on the next
floor had got a loud speaker, one of them little horns,
and it was not only a loud speaker but also a late
speaker, and in fact would speak your head off. And if
she didn't get on with this office a bit, the one that left
that note would be complaining to Mr. Dersingham,
and then that might mean another job gone, all due to
hastiness. She had better be putting her hastiness be-
hind a brush and duster. And, as if to give her a final
push, a clock somewhere outside sounded the half hour.
Half-past eightl-well, now she would have to bustle
round.
"" She was still bustling round-though, to be accurate,
she was only engaged in passing a languid, duster-
holding hand over the tin cover of the typewriter-when
Messrs. Twigg and Dersingham's next employee
arrived, and their day really began. The frosted glass
door that opened from the little space in which en-
quirers were kept waiting for a few minutes, now swung
back to admit into the General Office the body of 2