The Landlady, by Roald Dahl
BILLY WEAVER had travelled down from London on the slow afternoon train, w
ith a change at Swindon on the way, and by the time he got to Bath it was
about nine o'clock in the evening and the moon was coming up out of a clea
r starry sky over the houses opposite the station entrance. But the air wa
s deadly cold and the wind was like a flat blade of ice on his cheeks.
"Excuse me," he said, "but is there a fairly cheap hotel not too far away
from here?"
"Try The Bell and Dragon," the porter answered, pointing down the road. "
They might take you in. It's about a quarter of a mile along on the other sid
e."
Billy thanked him and picked up his suitcase and set out to walk the qu
arter-mile to The Bell and Dragon. He had never been to Bath before. He did
n't know anyone who lived there. But Mr Greenslade at the Head Office in Lo
ndon had told him it was a splendid city. "Find your own lodgings," he had
said, "and then go along and report to the Branch Manager as soon as you've
got yourself settled."
Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy-blue overcoat,
a new brown trilby hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. He
walked briskly down the street. He was trying to do everything briskly thes
e days.
Briskness, he had decided, was the one common characteristic of all suc
cessful businessmen. The big shots up at Head Office were absolutely fantas
tically brisk all the time. They were amazing.
There were no shops in this wide street that he was walking along, only
a line of tall houses on each side, all of them identical. They had porche
s and pillars and four or five steps going up to their front doors, and it
was obvious that once upon a time they had been very swanky residences. But
now, even in the darkness, he could see that the paint was peeling from th
e woodwork on their doors and windows, and that the handsome white fa•ades
were cracked and blotchy from neglect.
Suddenly, in a downstairs window that was brilliantly illuminated by a
street-lamp not six yards away, Billy caught sight of a printed notice prop
ped up against the glass in one of the upper panes. It said BED AND BREAKFA
ST. There was a vase of pussy-willows, tall and beautiful, standing just un
derneath the notice.
He stopped walking. He moved a bit closer. Green curtains (some sort of
velvety material) were hanging down on either side of the window. The pussywillows
looked wonderful beside them. He went right up and peered through th
e glass into the room, and the first thing he saw was a bright fire burning
in the hearth. On the carpet in front of the fire, a pretty little dachshund
was curled up asleep with its nose tucked into its belly. The room itself,
so far as he could see in the half-darkness, was filled with pleasant furnit
ure. There was a baby-grand piano and a big sofa and several plump armchairs
; and in one corner he spotted a large parrot in a cage. Animals were usuall
y a good sign in a place like this, Billy told himself; and all in all, it l
ooked to him as though it would be a pretty decent house to stay in. Certain
ly it would be more comfortable than The Bell and Dragon.
On the other hand, a pub would be more congenial than a boarding-house.
There would be beer and darts in the evenings, and lots of people to talk
to, and it would probably be a good bit cheaper, too. He had stayed a coupl
e of nights in a pub once before and he had liked it. He had never stayed i
n any boarding-houses, and, to be perfectly honest, he was a tiny bit frigh
tened of them. The name itself conjured up images of watery cabbage, rapaci
ous landladies, and a powerful smell of kippers in the living-room.
After dithering about like this in the cold for two or three minutes, Bi
lly decided that he would walk on and take a look at The Bell and Dragon bef
ore making up his mind. He turned to go.
And now a queer thing happened to him. He was in the act of steppin
g back and turning away from the window when all at once his eye was ca
ught and held in the most peculiar manner by the small notice that was
there. BED AND BREAKFAST, it said. BED AND BREAKFAST, BED AND BREAKFAST
, BED AND BREAKFAST. Each word was like a large black eye staring at hi
m through the glass, holding him, compelling him, forcing him to stay w
here he was and not to walk away from that house, and the next thing he
knew, he was actually moving across from the window to the front door
of the house, climbing the steps that led up to it, and reaching for th
e bell.
He pressed the bell. Far away in a back room he heard it ringing, and t
hen at once -it must have been at once because he hadn't even had time to t
ake his finger from the bell-button -the door swung open and a woman was st
anding there.
Normally you ring the bell and you have at least a half-minute's wait be
fore the door opens. But this dame was like a jack-in-the-box. He pressed th
e bell -and out she popped! It made him jump.
She was about forty-five or fifty years old, and the moment she saw hi
m, she gave him a warm welcoming smile.
"Please come in," she said pleasantly. She stepped aside, holding the do
or wide open, and Billy found himself automatically starting forward into th
e house. The compulsion or, more accurately, the desire to follow after her
into that house was extraordinarily strong.
"I saw the notice in the window," he said, holding himself back.
"Yes, I know."
"I was wondering about a room."
"It's all ready for you, my dear," she said. She had a round pink face and
very gentle blue eyes.
"I was on my way to The Bell and Dragon,"
Billy told her. "But the notice in your window just happened to catch my
eye."
"My dear boy," she said, "why don't you come in out of the cold?"
"How much do you charge?"
"Five and sixpence a night, including breakfast."
It was fantastically cheap. It was less than half of what he had been willin
g to pay.
"If that is too much," she added, "then perhaps I can reduce it just a ti
ny bit. Do you desire an egg for breakfast? Eggs are expensive at the moment.
It would be sixpence less without the egg."
"Five and sixpence is fine," he answered. "I should like very much to stay
here."
"I knew you would. Do come in."
She seemed terribly nice. She looked exactly like the mother of one's bes
t school-friend welcoming one into the house to stay for the Christmas holida
ys. Billy took off his hat, and stepped over the threshold.
"Just hang it there," she said, "and let me help you with your coat."
There were no other hats or coats in the hall. There were no umbrellas, n
o walking-sticks -nothing.
"We have it all to ourselves," she said, smiling at him over her shoulder as
she led the way upstairs. "You see, it isn't very often I have the pleasure of
taking a visitor into my little nest."
The old girl is slightly dotty, Billy told himself. But at five and sixpe
nce a night, who gives a damn about that? "I should've thought you'd be simpl
y swamped with applicants," he said politely.
"Oh, I am, my dear, I am, of course I am. But the trouble is that I'm incl
ined to be just a teeny weeny bit choosey and particular -if you see what I me
an."
"Ah, yes."
"But I'm always ready. Everything is always ready day and night in this
house just on the offchance that an acceptable young gentleman will come alo
ng. And it is such a pleasure, my dear, such a very great pleasure when now
and again I open the door and I see someone standing there who is just exact
ly right." She was half-way up the stairs, and she paused with one hand on t
he stair-rail, turning her head and smiling down at him with pale lips. "Lik
e you," she added, and her blue eyes travelled slowly all the way down the l
ength of Billy's body, to his feet, and then up again.
On the first-floor landing she said to him, "This floor is mine."
They climbed up a second flight. "And this one is all yours," she said. "
Here's your room. I do hope you'll like it." She took him into a small but ch
arming front bedroom, switching on the light as she went in.
"The morning sun comes right in the window, Mr Perkins. It Is Mr Perkins,
isn't it?"
"No," he said. "It's "Weaver."
"Mr Weaver. How nice. I've put a waterbottle between the sheets to air th
em out, Mr Weaver. It's such a comfort to have a hot water-bottle in a strang
e bed with clean sheets, don't you agree? And you may light the gas fire at a
ny time if you feel chilly."
"Thank you," Billy said. "Thank you ever so much." He noticed that the b
edspread had been taken off the bed, and that the bedclothes had been neatly
turned back on one side, all ready for someone to get in.
"I'm so glad you appeared," she said, looking earnestly into his face. "I
was beginning to get worried."
"That's all right," Billy answered brightly. "You mustn't worry about me."
He put his suitcase on the chair and started to open it.
"And what about supper, my dear? Did you manage to get anything to ea
t before you came here?"
"I'm not a bit hungry, thank you," he said. "I think I'll just go to bed as
soon as possible because tomorrow I've got to get up rather early and report to
the office."
"Very well, then. I'll leave you now so that you can unpack. But before
you go to bed, would you be kind enough to pop into the sitting-room on th
e ground floor and sign the book? Everyone has to do that because it's the
law of the land, and we don't want to go breaking any laws at this stage in
the proceedings, do we?" She gave him a little wave of the hand and went q
uickly out of the room and closed the door.
Now, the fact that his landlady appeared to be slightly off her rocker di
dn't worry Billy in the least. After all, she was not only harmless--there wa
s no question about that--but she was also quite obviously a kind and generou
s soul. He guessed that she had probably lost a son in the war, or something
like that, and had never got over it.
So a few minutes later, after unpacking his suitcase and washing his hand
s, he trotted downstairs to the ground floor and entered the living-room. His
landlady wasn't there, but the fire was glowing in the hearth, and the littl
e dachshund was still sleeping in front of it. The room was wonderfully warm
and cosy. I'm a lucky fellow, he thought, rubbing his hands. This is a bit of
all right.
He found the guest-book lying open on the piano, so he took out his pe
n and wrote down his name and address. There were only two other entries a
bove his on the page, and, as one always does with guest-books, he started
to read them. One was a Christopher Mulholland from Cardiff. The other wa
s Gregory W. Temple from Bristol.
That's funny, he thought suddenly. Christopher Mu; holland. It rings a bell
.
Now where on earth had he heard that rather unusual name before?
Was he a boy at school? No. Was it one of his sister's numerous young me
n, perhaps, or a friend of his father's? No, no, it wasn't any of those. He
glanced down again at the book.
Christopher Mulholland
231 Cathedral Road, Cardiff
Gregory W. Temple
27 Sycamore Drive, Bristol
As a matter of fact, now he came to think of it, he wasn't at all sure that
the second name didn't have almost as much of a familiar ring about it as the
first.
"Gregory Temple?" he said aloud, searching his memory. "Christopher M
ulholland?
"Such charming boys," a voice behind him answered, and he turned and saw
his landlady sailing into the room with a large silver tea-tray in her hands.
She was holding it well out in front of her, and rather high up, as though t
he tray were a pair of reins on a frisky horse.
"They sound somehow familiar," he said.
"They do? How interesting."
"I'm almost positive I've heard those names before somewhere. Isn't tha
t queer? Maybe it was in the newspapers. They weren't famous in any way, we
re they? I mean famous cricketers or footballers or something like that?"
"Famous," she said, setting the tea-tray down on the low table in front
of the sofa. "Oh no, I don't think they were famous. But they were extraordi
narily handsome, both of them, I can promise you that. They were tall and yo
ung and handsome, my dear, just exactly like you."
Once more, Billy glanced down at the book.
"Look here, he said, noticing the dates. This last entry is over two years o
ld."
"It is?"
"Yes, indeed. And Christopher Mulholland's is nearly a year before that-
-more than three Years ago."
"Dear me," she said, shaking her head and heaving a dainty little sigh. "
I would never have thought it. How time does fly away from us all, doesn't it
, Mr Wilkins?"
"It's Weaver," Billy said. "W-e-a-v-e-r."
"Oh, of course it is!" she cried, sitting down on the sofa. "How silly of
me. I do apologize. In one ear and out the other, that's me, Mr Weaver."
"You know something?" Billy said. "Something that's really quite extraord
inary about all this?"
"No, dear, I don't."
"Well, you see both of these names, Mulholland and Temple, I not only
seem to remember each of them separately, so to speak, but somehow or othe
r, in some peculiar way, they both appear to be sort of connected together
as well. As though they were both famous for the same sort of thing, if y
ou see what I mean--like--like Dempsey and Tunney, for example, or Churchi
ll and Roosevelt."
"How amusing," she said. "But come over here now, dear, and sit down bes
ide me on the sofa and I'll give you a nice cup of tea and a ginger biscuit
before you go to bed."
"You really shouldn't bother," Billy said. "I didn't mean you to do anyth
ing like that." He stood by the piano, watching her as she fussed about with
the cups and saucers. He noticed that she had small, white, quickly moving ha
nds, and red finger-nails.
"I'm almost positive it was in the newspapers I saw them," Billy said. "I'll
think of it in a second. I'm sure I will."
There is nothing more tantalizing than a thing like this which lingers jus
t outside the borders of one's memory. He hated to give up.
"Now wait a minute," he said. "Wait just a minute. Muiholland...Christ
opher Muiholland...wasn't that the name of the Eton schoolboy who was on a
walking-tour through the West Country, and then all of a sudden "Milk?" s
he said. "And sugar?"
"Yes, please. And then all of a sudden "Eton schoolboy?" she said. "Oh
no, my dear, that can't possibly be right because my Mr Muiholland was ce
rtainly not an Eton schoolboy when he came to me. He was a Cambridge under
graduate. Come over here now and sit next to me and warm yourself in front
of this lovely fire. Come on. Your tea's all ready for you." She patted t
he empty place beside her on the sofa, and she sat there smiling at Billy
and waiting for him to come over.
He crossed the room slowly, and sat down on the edge of the sofa. She pla
ced his teacup on the table in front of him.
"There we are," she said. "How nice and cosy this is, isn't it?"
Billy started sipping his tea. She did the same. For half a minute or so
, neither of them spoke. But Billy knew that she was looking at him. Her bod
y was half-turned towards him, and he could feel her eyes resting on his fac
e, watching him over the rim of her teacup. Now and again, he caught a whiff
of a peculiar smell that seemed to emanate directly from her person. It was
not it, the least unpleasant, and it reminded him well, he wasn't quite sur
e what it reminded him of Pickled walnuts? New leather? Or was it the corrid
ors of a hospital?
"Mr Mulholland was a great one for his tea," she said at length. "Never
in my life have I seen anyone drink as much tea as dear, sweet Mr Muiholland
."
"I suppose he left fairly recently," Billy said. He was still puzzling hi
s head about the two names. He was positive now that he had seen them in the
newspapers in the headlines.
"Left?" she said, arching her brows. "But my dear boy, he never left. He's
still here. Mr Temple is also here. They're on the third floor, both of them
together."
Billy set down his cup slowly on the table, and stared at his landlady.
She smiled back at him, and then she put out one of her white hands and pa
tted him comfortingly on the knee. "How old are you, my dear?" she asked.
"Seventeen."
"Seventeen!" she cried. "Oh, it's the perfect age! Mr Mulholland was also
seventeen. But I think he was a trifle shorter than you are, in fact I'm sur
e he was, and his teeth weren't quite so white. You have the most beautiful t
eeth, Mr Weaver, did you know that?"
"They're not as good as they look," Billy said. "They've got simply masses
of fillings in them at the back."
"Mr Temple, of course, was a little older," she said, ignoring his remar
k. "He was actually twenty-eight. And yet I never would have guessed it if h
e hadn't told me, never in my whole life. There wasn't a blemish on his body
."
"A what?" Billy said.
"His skin was just like a baby's."
There was a pause. Billy picked up his teacup and took another sip of his
tea, then he set it down again gently in its saucer. He waited for her to say
something else, but she seemed to have lapsed into another of her silences He
sat there staring straight ahead of him into the far corner of the room, bitin
g his lower lip.
"That parrot," he said at last. "You know something? It had me completel
y fooled when I first saw it through the window from the street. I could hav
e sworn it was alive."
"Alas, no longer."
"It's most terribly clever the way it's been done," he said. "It doesn't look
in the least bit dead. Who did it?"
"I did."
"You did?"
"Of course," she said. "And have you met my little Basil as well?" She n
odded towards the dachshund curled up so comfortably in front of the fire. B
illy looked at it. And suddenly, he realized that this animal had all the ti
me been just as silent and motionless as the parrot. He put out a hand and t
ouched it gently on the top of its back. The back was hard and cold, and whe
n he pushed the hair to one side with his fingers, he could see the skin und
erneath, greyish-black and dry and perfectly preserved.
"Good gracious me," he said. "How absolutely fascinating." He turned awa
y from the dog and stared with deep admiration at the little woman beside hi
m on the sofa. "It must be most awfully difficult to do a thing like that."
"Not in the least," she said. "I stuff all my little pets myself when they
pass away. Will you have another cup of tea?"
"No, thank you," Billy said. The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds, and h
e didn't much care for it.
"You did sign the book, didn't you?"
"Oh, yes."
"That's good. Because later on, if I happen to forget what you were call
ed, then I can always come down here and look it up. I still do that almost
every day with Mr Mulholland and Mr--"
"Temple," Billy said. "Gregory Temple. Excuse my asking, but haven't the
re been any other guests here except them in the last two or three years?"
Holding her teacup high in one hand, inclining her head slightly to the le
ft, she looked up at him out of the corners of her eyes and gave him another g
entle little smile.
"No, my dear," she said. "Only you."