Original subtitles

Oh, Miss Astley, you're back already.

Hello? Are you awake?

I came back early.

What's this?

Nan, you surprised us.

We didn't look for you until tomorrow.

We were going to tell you, Nan, when you came back.

Tell me what?

Kitty?

No, it isn't true.

Oh, he forced you, did he?

So that's what all your business meetings were about?

All this time when I thought you were mine?

No, it wasn't like that.

Until last night, it was just... just talk and kisses, I swear it, Nan.

We were going to tell you everything.

Everything?

Good God, what more is there to tell?

Kitty and I are going to be married, Nan. I'm sure in time you'll come to see

us for the best.

No!

No!

Don't you see, Nan? It wouldn't do to go on as we were.

I believe you've killed me.

The pair of you. Oh, come now, compose yourself, Nan.

I know this has come as a shock to you, but this carry-on is quite out of

proportion.

Out of proportion?

Don't you know?

Hasn't she told you about us? I know that you were sweethearts of a kind.

Of a kind?

The kind that hold hands?

Didn't she tell you that we fuck each other? I don't care to use such

language, Nan.

And if I did, I wouldn't use that word for anything a pair of girls can do.

You need a man for that, I think you'll find.

Hey, Kitty.

You said we'd be together forever.

You said you loved me. You said you loved me.

You said we'd be together forever.

You said we'd be together forever.

You said you loved me. Loved me. Loved me.

Loved me. Loved me. Loved me.

Kitty and I are going to be married.

I walked the streets all that day, not knowing where I was going.

I wanted to see nothing, to feel nothing, to remember nothing.

Everyone I knew and loved had betrayed me.

You need a mat for that, I think you're right.

You need a mat, I think you're right.

You need a mat, I think you're right.

You said you loved me!

How could she let him touch her?

I hated them and wanted to die.

But I wouldn't let them do that to me.

Morning, Nan.

Oh, you don't look a thing at all.

Kinty's not in, is she?

Or Mr Bliss?

No fear. A bit early for them.

Yes? I've come about the room.

The house I keep here is a tidy one. I like my lot of dittos. I've had trouble

with single ladies in the past.

Who you see or what you do outside my house is your concern, but there's one

thing I won't have, and that's gentleman followers in a single lady's room.

You'll have no trouble on that score from me, Mrs Best.

Five shillings a week in advance

Late payments will not be tolerated

Now

I was

truly alone a poor outcast from life's feast tormented by my memories

It's nice and hot.

You really should take something, miss.

For nigh on two months, I never left that room.

I barely washed and never changed my dress, for I had no other.

I believe I would have faded away altogether if it weren't for the little

maid Mary, who brought me morsels of food and urged me to eat them.

Nice to not miss.

You said you loved me!

It was done.

It was over.

I suppose I had been hoping that she would change her mind and come and find

me.

But now I knew for certain she was lost to me.

It was time to face the world alone.

Though I had no idea how I should live in it.

But I found that to walk alone in London isn't an easy thing for a woman to do.

Hello, darling.

I thought what a cruel joke that I who had swaggered across the stages of

London should be afraid to walk upon the streets and most of all I wish that I

could escape from my miserable self

Keep for a room. How long, dear? Just an hour.

One hour only, mine.

Not today, dear.

Perhaps another time, eh?

All right, dear.

Well, don't forget now.

And for the first time since that terrible day, I felt a sort of freedom

and a sort of strength.

Somehow I had taken the first steps that would lead me out of my misery and into

some different way of living.

Though I had no idea what that would be.

My little stock of money was dwindling fast, and I was going to have to find

some way of replenishing it, or starve.

Necessity is a hard task, Master.

And if the opportunity had presented itself, I dare say I should have sunk so

low as to become a thief.

Good evening, Tommy Atkins. Buying a little present for your sweetheart?

Couldn't afford anything here, sir.

That's a shame. She'll have to be content with a kiss, then, eh?

Haven't got no sweetheart.

Not anymore.

No, sweetheart.

A good-looking lad like you, I find that hard to believe.

Are you up for it, Tommy? For a sovereign?

Up for what, sir? I don't understand you. Oh, come on. You know the game,

Tommy. You're all attitude soldier boys. Your hands are never off each other's

cocks.

Not me, sir.

I only joined up last week. I've never done anything like that. Then it's time

you began, my boy. Just take it in your hand. Only a minute's work, and there's

a sovereign in it for you.

Hard as a broom handle, and aching for a spend.

Nan Astley could never have given the answer that I gave him.

But Tommy Atkins took us both by surprise.

Ho and steady, Tom dear.

Go on.

I thought, if this

were Walter, I'd bite it off.

Steady on.

I suppose I should have felt ashamed, but I felt nothing but surprise.

And a kind of fierce elation. And in a couple of minutes, I had earned enough

to keep me for a couple of weeks.

And so I began my new career as a street woman.

And I found it not so very different from acting on the stage.

I told myself it wasn't Nan Astley who took men's spunk in my mouth or in my

hand.

But Tommy Atkins or Eaton Bertie or Abel Seaman Sims or Bobby Brown from

Bermondsey.

But now I was in a regular way of business, I needed a more regular way of

life.

I had had enough of changing in filthy rooms that reeked of men's spendings.

Perhaps this respectable lady would accommodate the needs of a rather

unusual female.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I've come about the room.

Say good day to the lady, Grace.

Good day, Grace.

Oh, dear.

To tell the truth, we were hoping for someone a bit older.

A widow, perhaps.

You see, um... My daughter's a rather unusual, trusting sort of girl.

I wouldn't like to have young fellows coming in and out.

There wouldn't be any young fellows, Mrs Milne. That I'll guarantee.

And I'd never get behind with my rent.

Well... You see, the thing is, I work as a kind of entertainer at parties and

such like.

And for that, I sometimes dress in gentleman's suits.

Now, if you and Grace don't mind that...

I think I might do very well.

Gentleman suits, you say?

Well, Grace, what do you think of that?

Would you like to see one, Grace?

Oh, my eyes, Grace. What a beauty.

Would you like to try it, Grace?

Yes, please.

Oh, now, isn't that kind of a lady?

She gave me the first floor front.

Eight shillings a week.

I think she'd have let me have it for nothing, for Grace's sake.

Sometimes I thought she must have been as simple as her daughter, for she never

asked where I went or what I did.

I'm off then, Mrs M.

See you tomorrow, Gracie.

It'll take as long as you like, dear.

You have your own key.

Right then.

Some nights I didn't need to go out.

I told myself that this was freedom.

Perhaps that was the secret of happiness, to expect nothing or expect

very little.

What is it the soldiers say?

If you're warm, dry and smoking, that's happiness.

Evening, sweetheart.

How are you?

Florence. Who knows what it is that draws one person to another.

But for the first time in months, I felt something of my old self stirring in me.

I wanted to see more of Florence.

And soon enough, I did.

Hello again.

I hope I didn't frighten you the other night. I'm sorry, I don't... Evening,

sweetheart. How are you?

Oh, that was you.

Quite right.

You live up there, do you? I do.

And you live there? That's right.

We were very lucky.

Mother and I lost our other house, but Miss Darby found us this one.

And now I work for her charity, finding homes for others.

Well, that's nice.

I was just going to the park. Will you come with me? Oh, no. I've got so many

calls. Oh.

But I go along that way.

So you're not in your trousers today, then? No.

I like to change and change about.

Boy one day, girl the next.

Does that shock you?

No, I don't think so.

I can see it must have advantages.

I suppose you can go where you like.

You can do as you like. Exactly so.

Hit the nail on the head.

Well, Miss Darby would be most interested.

She's writing a book about the woman question.

Perhaps she'd like to put me in it then.

I certainly think she'd be interested in meeting you.

I didn't give a tinker's fart for Miss Darby or the woman question.

But I knew I wanted to see more of Florence.

I wonder, would you like to come to a lecture with me?

At the Athenaeum Hall?

It's on women and labour.

A lecture? I say, that's just my style, I don't think.

But I'll give it a go, if you like.

Really? Said so, didn't I?

When is it?

Thursday. Six.

We could meet for some tea beforehand, if you like.

Done.

You live with your mother, don't you?

That's right.

Before that, we lived just round the corner.

You know, I've never been out of Islington.

Very adventurous, eh? You don't have to travel far to have adventures.

But you're not from round here, are you?

No. So where do you come from?

Kent.

Whitstable. It's a seaside place.

I used to work in an oyster bar.

Did you go back there very often?

See your Ma and Pa?

They're dead.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

No need to be. It was a long time ago.

So what work do you do in London?

In a shop.

What sort of a shop?

A hat shop.

Well, I'd never have imagined that.

Why not?

I don't know.

You just don't seem the sort.

I bet they don't let you wear your trousers in there.

No. No, of course not.

So, what do you do there exactly?

You serve in the shop or are you in the back making the hats up?

I just can't seem to imagine you there somehow.

I... Well... I couldn't keep his app.

She was so sweet and straight, I couldn't bear to lie to her.

But I couldn't tell her the truth either.

Is there a ladies' lavatory here?

Yes, through there, I think.

I won't be a tick.

What made me think I could be friends with a respectable girl?

All that was over for me If she could have seen me known what I really did and

what I really used those clothes for I Belonged in the gutter

You going for it, sonny?

It's a sub for a dubbing, two for a suck, but I won't be buggered. I don't

pay more than a sub for a soldier.

Dubbing or nothing, then?

Know a place?

Follow me.

This is the place, sir.

Come on in.

Let's see what you're made of, soldier boy.

No, I said no!

Let me out, I'll cut you, I will!

Keep still, or you'll get worse.

All right, me boy.

You're safe now.

You come with me.

You won't be hurt. Please, constable, let me go. It was my very first time,

sir. He made me.

Constable?

I'm no constable.

Somebody's taken a fancy to you.

You've got nothing to fear.

I won't be buggered.

In you go.

Good evening.

I never thought... Well, now you see you have nothing to fear. I'll see you

safely home.

Or my own house is quite nearby.

Let me offer you a hot toddy to calm your nerves. You were in a little

difficulty just now, I think.

Yes. Thanks ever so... That chap said he'd buy me a drink and next thing I

knew he dragged me off the street.

I had a bad fright there, but I shall know better next time.

Shall you?

So you were perfectly innocent, were you? No idea at all what a gentleman on

the town might want with a young soldier boy.

No, miss.

Well, now, that's a surprise.

I had the impression that you understood the game pretty well.

I've been watching you for a while, young man. There's no need to be coy

with me. I'm sorry, miss. You've made a mistake.

No, I don't think I have. Truly, you have, miss.

I'm very grateful, but honest, I'm not what you're looking for. Oh, yes, I

think you are.

But I'm a girl.

Do you think I didn't know that, you little fool?

Though you wear the outfit far better than most of the lads do. And you have

the legs for it, too. Oh, yes.

And none of your gentlemen guessed.

If they did, they didn't say.

And anyway, I was pretty strict about what they could and couldn't touch.

And it all went off all right.

Until tonight.

Pretty strict, were you?

I wonder, should I like you to be pretty strict with me?

But there's no need to be afraid.

This could be the luckiest night of your life.

Come, come. Where's your sense of adventure?

Take my arm.

Don't think of making a run for it. Corder is quick as well as strong.

That'll be all tonight.

Thank you, Blake.

Yes, ma'am. Night, ma'am.

How warm it is in here.

Not too warm for you, I hope.

Perhaps a bit.

What's your name?

Nancy.

King. And I think you might have offered me a glass of wine and a cig. I beg your

pardon, Miss King.

My name is Leatherby, Mrs Diana Leatherby. Have you heard that name

before?

No.

All the better.

If you were the king of pleasure and I were the queen of pain, you're very

handsome, Miss King.

Oh, no.

Oh. What have we here, I wonder?

So all your promises come to nothing after all take those off

Give me the glass and the cigarette quickly You

may leave the jacket on and the boots and the hat

Good.

Now go through there into the bedroom and open the chest under the mirrors.

Hunter!

Push it off.

Push it off and come to me.

Come here.

Oh.

Squeezy little Todd.

Oh, you sleep like a child.

I've been up this half hour making a fearful row and still you slumbered on.

I've run for breakfast.

I hope you're hungry.

Yes. Yes, I am. Good. Oh, here she is.

Morning, ma'am.

Morning, miss. Very good, Blake. Draw a bath for Miss King. Oh, and tell Mrs

Hooper I'll speak to her about luncheon. Yes, ma'am.

There's a Persian story I read as a girl.

A beggar sets a genie free from a bottle and is rewarded with a wish.

He can live in ordinary comfort for 70 years.

Or in pleasure.

With a princess for a bride, servants, every desire satisfied for 500 days.

Now if you were that beggar, which would you choose?

The pleasure.

Good.

So did the beggar.

So.

Will you stay with me, Nan, and be pleasured and pleasure me in your turn?

Stay with you as what?

Your guest, your friend, your servant?

As my tard, you silly girl.

No, no, no, not in a hole-and-corner way.

You'll ride out with me to the park, attend me at the theatre, wear the

finest clothes.

But you'll belong to me and we'll pleasure each other. How does that seem?

I don't know. I don't know enough about you to know whether I like you.

And you don't know me.

I know all I need to know about you.

You're like me. You showed it last night and you're showing it now.

You hunger for your own sex.

You hunger for the pleasure I can give you, don't you?

Yes.

There are moments in our lives that change us.

That night when Kitty cast her rose at me and sent my admiration tumbling over

into love.

And this was another.

The start of a new life.

How do you

like yourself?

Not bad.

Smarter than anything I wore down the Dilly.

It's your coming out suit.

I had begun my new life.

And what a life. And what a world. It was so easy to get sucked in.

Look how they eye you, men and women, both. They'd all love to have you, but

they shan't because you're mine, bought and paid for.

Diana, you old Ruey.

You've done it at last.

Ladies, allow me to present my companion, Miss King.

This is Mrs. Jackson, quite my oldest friend in London and quite the most

reputable. Everything she says and does is designed to corrupt.

I'm afraid I've been corrupted already, Mrs. Jackson.

Good. Good God.

It talks.

That is Dickie, Miss King.

Touch of the green-eyed monster there.

Charmed. Likewise. So tell me, Miss King, where does a little treasure like

you come from?

Like me?

There's no one quite like me, Mrs. Jicks.

But if you want to know, I was born by the seaside in Whitstable, where the

oysters come from.

Whitstable. Would you believe it?

She's a Whitstable mermaid.

Like a mermaid.

Come along, child.

But the Whitstable mermaid was no more.

This was my life now.

For the most part, she kept me close and displayed me at home.

The boy, they called me.

She contrived tableaux so that they could feast their eyes on me.

She enjoyed that, that they could look but couldn't touch.

They knew that she would be enjoying me later.

Ladies, tonight we give you hermaphrodite.

We were a perfect double act.

I was the living proof of her perversity. I was the stain left by her

lust.

She had awakened something perverse in me, too.

And I couldn't imagine a life beyond her shaping.

Sorry, miss.

I used you to put on and take off this stuff.

Where's Mrs. Leatherby?

Gone out, miss.

She went out before you woke up. Well, she might have told me.

Oh, she can please herself, can't she?

Not like you and me.

Do you like being a maid here, Blayne?

It's a very good place, miss.

But I'd rather be my own mistress.

What would you do if you were your own mistress?

I'd set up my own boarding house.

In the colonies.

I'm saving for my wages towards it now.

A boarding house in the colonies?

Yeah.

For ladies.

Well, maybe I'll come and stay in it someday.

You'd be very welcome, miss.

To mark the passing of time.

Do you know you've been with me longer than any of the others?

Quite an achievement.

Dickie, Clara, the boy will take our coats.

What a little angel.

There.

Take care of him.

Ladies and gentlemen, will you please hurry along to your seats? The curtain

will rise in three minutes.

Thank you, sir. Two gents and two ladies.

Don't you know me, Bill?

Nan King.

Have you got a sec?

Give us two ticks, Raymond.

What happened to you then, Nan? What have you been doing?

Oh, you was missed.

And you still are.

There was never an act like you and Kitty Butlers.

Do you hear from Mr Bliss?

Or Kitty?

Oh, yes.

They've got an act together now, playing just down the road at the Strand Palace.

Oh, tonight?

What time are they on?

Second half.

Just after the interval, I think. What's the boy doing?

He's talking to the nigger at the close.

I'd better go.

And thanks, Bill.

Can't take him anywhere.

I think you should get a collar and chain, Diana. And a whip.

Excuse me.

Call a nature.

Let's see where she's going.

I had to see her.

I had to see Kitty again.

Comfort and my only joy now his mother's gone to heaven all I've got my little

boy

Being sick in the gents.

Sorry.

I don't know where you've been tonight. Corda

followed you. But what I want to know is why there was an act I wanted to see.

A girl I used to know.

Who damn you?

A girl I once loved more than anyone.

More than myself.

More than you love me.

Once more than I love you. I don't know.

You feeling better, Miss?

You looked ever so poorly last night.

Oh, yes.

I shall live.

Come sit down, Blake. Talk to me.

What about, Miss?

Well... What's your first name?

It's Zena, Miss.

Mrs. Leatherby says she got you out of a reformatory.

What were you there for?

I was sent there on account of a girl I was friends with at a house in Kentish

Town. We were maids there together.

So you were a maid before you came here?

I went out as a skivvy when I was 10.

And then I got the place at Kenishtown when I was 14.

I was a housemaid then.

And... I got very thick with another maid there called Agnes.

Agnes had a chap.

She threw the chap over me. It was for my sake.

That's how thick we was.

And it was Agnes got you sent to the reformatory?

No, miss, it was another girl.

She was jealous of me and Agnes.

It was her that told the missus.

And Mrs. Leatherby, does she know why you were in the reformatory?

Oh, yeah, she knows all right.

She's a great friend of the lady governor.

Has Mrs. Leatherby ever tried? Not since you came, miss.

He has only once or twice in any case.

I think she just wanted to make it clear, like, that she could do what she

wanted with me.

Oh, yes.

I can believe that, all right.

Will there be anything else, Miss?

No. Not just now.

Thank you.

Very good, Miss.

What had become of me?

What had I become?

She spoke of love.

And it touched me.

But I felt too spoiled and stained for love.

Besides, I was still obsessed with Diana for all her casual cruelty.

I must have been.

For it would have been easy enough, you would think, just to walk out of the

house one day when she was out. Walk out forever and leave no word of farewell.

I hated myself.

But still.

After nearly two years, I was on fire for her, as she was for me.

I had started, and I had to take that journey with her right the way to the

end.

Though I feared it would be a bad end.

Well, did you miss me?

Much you care if I miss you or not. No, no, little soldier. No sulks.

Don't you know you're the love of my life?

And then, in March, came Diana's 40th birthday.

She decided to celebrate it with a fancy dress party.

I chose to go as Antinous, Hadrian's favorite page, who drowned in the Nile.

His sad fate suited my mood.

I hated my life, but I couldn't leave it.

What do you think?

I think you look lovely, miss.

I

hated

it all, but I still had my pride.

I would still be the most beautiful thing in the place, desired by all,

inaccessible to any but my mistress.

I give you Antinous.

What? No dildo? Where's Monsieur Dildo? He might come later. But remember, this

is a very sweet and virtuous Roman boy.

Delightful. You look like a picture from a bugger's compendium, my dear.

Thank you kindly, I'm sure.

And what might you be wearing under that, young man?

Just a little eau de cologne, no.

You mustn't touch or look.

Just use your imagination.

Don't get much chance to use anything else these days.

God, look at Dickie. What's she supposed to be?

Dorian Gray, I believe.

I swear to you, it was as big as a boy's doodle and as stiff as my duff. She

blames it on her Hindu nurse.

I've seen that amongst the Turks as well.

They're bred like it in order to pleasure themselves and the seraglio.

You needn't go as far as that to find it.

English girls in the slums all have them. They're brought up 22 of bed,

frigging all night. No wonder their little clitorises... I was sick of it.

No, no.

The backbiting, the bitching. Something inside me was getting ready to explode.

If we had a girl from the slums here, I'd pull down her drawers myself and

show you the proof.

What does Antinous say?

You used to be a little slum slut, didn't you, once upon a time?

Of course, Blake, come here. Come here.

You're a reformatory girl, aren't you?

Aren't you?

Yes, ma'am. Good.

Lower... your drawers and lift up your skirt.

Oh, good God, girl, don't have to come and do it for you. Leave her alone.

What? Let her alone.

Go back to the kitchen, Blake. Stay where you are.

And as for you, do you think your mistress here?

What's it to you if I ask my girl to show me what she's got between her legs?

You've done the same thing yourself often enough.

Get back behind the curtain.

And when we finish with Blake, perhaps we'll... Or take turns upon Antony.

You shan't talk to me like that. You don't own me. Oh, Lord, what a bore.

What a bore.

Nothing to you, you old cow.

Got out like a boy of 17.

You'll go to your room now.

And when you've had time to think, you will come down and apologize.

Then we'll devise a little punishment for you.

Something suitably Roman, maybe.

What are you going to do then?

Throw me to the lions?

I know one thing.

I'd make a tastier meal than you, you worn-out, pathetic old trollop.

What is it?

Can I stay here with you miss?

I'm frightened to go to my own room with those ladies roaming all over the house.

Yes you can stay.

What's in the bottle?

Brandy.

I've fought for the shock.

Give it here.

so so

What a thing to do.

Did you used to frig yourself in the reformatory?

You're as bad as them downstairs.

Just think of me with a cock.

I'd like to see you with one.

What?

You don't mean...

It's only human nature after all.

Oh, some they like it this way and some they like it that. The lady dips a

curtsy and the gentleman tips his hat. And some they like them big and fat and

others neat and small. But whatever you say, it's only human nature after all.

Last Sunday I went up the park just to take the air. I saw a girl up on the

swings and she was pretty far.

I said, now shall I give a push and catch you if you've all pushed on, she

said. It's only human nature after all.

Oh, some they like a nightingale and some they like a lark. And some they

like a pretty girl to cut her in the dark.

And some they like a pansy and some they like a ball. But whatever you say, it's

only human nature after all.