The whole of the interior was without a straight line, each wall only meeting by the obligation for a ceiling. Under the sisters’ jurisdiction, it was decorous and compact, with a tangible air of fierce endeavour. In here Philo and Gertie sold stuck-together sweets, shards of toffee, dusty chocolates, cream, pink and yellow bars, and geometric shards of bright-coloured stickiness without name or wrapper, dips from a jar of fizz, single cigarettes, half-cigarettes and damp matches that would strike if you kept them a day beside the fire. They took in sewing, darning and what have you, offering
...more
