Nothing, perhaps, could have severed Leonard from Burley but Helen's return
to his care. It was impossible for him, even had there been another room in
the house vacant, (which there was not,) to install this noisy, riotous son
of the Muse by Bacchus, talking at random, and smelling of spirits, in the
same dwelling with an innocent, delicate, timid, female child. And Leonard
could not leave her alone all the twenty-four hours. She restored a home to
him, and imposed its duties. He, therefore, told Mr. Burley that in future
he should write and study in his own room, and hinted with many a blush,
and as delicately as he could, that it seemed to him that whatever he
obtained from his pen ought to be halved with Burley, to whose interest he
owed the employment, and from whose books or whose knowledge he took what
helped to maintain it; but that the other half, if his, he could no longer
afford to spend upon feasts or libations. He had another to provide for.
Burley pooh-poohed the notion of taking half his coadjutor's earning, with
much grandeur, but spoke very fretfully of Leonard's sober appropriation of
the other half; and, though a good-natured, warm-hearted man, felt
extremely indignant against the sudden interposition of poor Helen.
However, Leonard was firm; and then Burley grew sullen, and so they parted.
But the rent was still to be paid. How? Leonard for the first time thought
of the pawn-broker. He had clothes to spare, and Riccabocca's watch. No;
that last he shrank from applying to such base uses.
He went home at noon and met Helen at the street door. She too had been
out, and her soft cheek was rosy red with unwonted exercise and the sense
of joy. She had still preserved the few gold pieces which Leonard had taken
back to her on his first visit to Miss Starke's. She had now gone out and
bought wools and implements for work; and meanwhile she had paid the rent.
Leonard did not object to the work, but he blushed deeply when he knew
about the rent, and was very angry. He payed back to her that night what
she had advanced; and Helen wept silently at his pride, and wept more when
she saw the next day a woeful hiatus in his wardrobe.
But Leonard now worked at home, and worked resolutely; and Helen sat by his
side, working too; so that next day, and the next, slipped peacefully away,
and in the evening of the second be asked her to walk out in the fields.
She sprang up joyously at the invitation, when bang went the door, and in
reeled John Burley--drunk;--And so drunk!