"I thought they were never going. Well?"
It was Miss Pringle who had come in from her retreat in the garden,
eager to hear the news the moment she had seen the Wickhams driving
away. Nora turned and looked at her without a word.
Miss Pringle was genuinely startled at the drawn look on her face.
"Nora! What's the matter? Isn't it as much as you thought?"
"Miss Wickham has left me nothing," said Nora in a dead voice.
Miss Pringle gave a positive wail of anguish. "Oh-h-h-h."
"Not a penny. Oh, it's cruel!" the girl said, almost wildly. "After
all," she went on bitterly, "there was no need for her to leave me
anything. She gave me board and lodging and thirty pounds a year. If I
stayed it was because I chose. But she needn't have promised me
anything. She needn't have prevented me from marrying."
"My dear, you could never have married that little assistant. He wasn't
a gentleman," Miss Pringle reminded her.
"Ten years! The ten best years of a woman's life, when other girls are
enjoying themselves. And what did I get for it? Board and lodging and
thirty pounds a year. A cook does better than that."
"We can't expect to make as much money as a good cook," said Miss
Pringle, with touching and unconscious pathos. "One has to pay something
for living like a lady among people of one's own class."
"Oh, it's cruel!" Nora could only repeat.
"My dear," said Miss Pringle with an effort at consolation, "don't give
way. I'm sure you'll have no difficulty in finding another situation.
You wash lace beautifully and no one can arrange flowers like you."
Nora sank wearily into a chair. "And I was dreaming of France and
Italy--I shall spend ten years more with an old lady, and then she'll
die and I shall look out for another situation. It won't be so easy then
because I shan't be so young. And so it'll go on until I can't find a
situation because I'm too old, and then some charitable people will get
me into a home. You like the life, don't you?"
"My dear, there are so few things a gentlewoman can do."
"When I think of those ten years," said Nora, pacing up and down the
length of the room, "having to put up with every unreasonableness! Never
being allowed to feel ill or tired. No servant would have stood what I
have. The humiliation I've endured!"
"You're tired and out of sorts," said Miss Pringle soothingly. "Everyone
isn't so trying as Miss Wickham. I'm sure Mrs. Hubbard has been kindness
itself to me."
"Considering."
"I don't know what you mean by 'considering.'"
"Considering that she's rich and you're poor. She gives you her old
clothes. She frequently doesn't ask you to have dinner by yourself when
she's giving a party. She doesn't remind you that you're a dependent
unless she's very much put out. But you--you've had thirty years of it.
You've eaten the bitter bread of slavery till--till it tastes like plum
cake!"
Miss Pringle was distinctly hurt. "I don't know why you say such things
to me, Nora."
"Oh, you mustn't mind what I say; I----"
"Mr. Hornby would like to see you for a minute, Miss," said Kate from
the doorway.
"Now?"
"I told him I didn't think it would be very convenient, Miss, but he
says it's very important, and he won't detain you more than five
minutes."
"What a nuisance. Ask him to come in."
"Very good, Miss."
"I wonder what on earth he can want."
"Who is he, Nora?"
"Oh, he's the son of Colonel Hornby. Don't you know, he lives at the top
of Molyneux Park? His mother was a great friend of Miss Wickham's. He
comes down here now and then for week-ends. He's got something to do
with motor cars."
"Mr. Hornby," said Kate from the door.
Reginald Hornby was evidently one of those candid souls who are above
simulating an emotion they do not feel. He had regarded the late Miss
Wickham as an unusually tiresome old woman. His mother had liked her of
course. But he could hardly have been expected to do so. Moreover, he
had a shrewd notion that she must have been a perfect Tartar to live
with. Miss Marsh might be busy or tired out with the ordeal of the day,
but as she also might be leaving almost immediately and he wanted to see
her, he had not hesitated to come, once he was sure that the Wickham
relatives had departed. That he would find the late Miss Wickham's
companion indulging in any show of grief for her late employer, had
never entered his head.
He was a good-looking, if rather vacuous, young man with a long, elegant
body. His dark, sleek hair was always carefully brushed and his small
mustache trimmed and curled. His beautiful clothes suggested the
fashionable tailors of Savile Row. Everything about him--his tie, his
handkerchief protruding from his breast pocket, his boots--bore the
stamp of the very latest thing.
"I say, I'm awfully sorry to blow in like this," he said airily.
He beamed on Nora, whom he had always regarded as much too pretty a girl
to be what he secretly called a 'frozy companion' and sent a quick
inquiring glance at Miss Pringle, whom he vaguely remembered to have
seen somewhere in Tunbridge Wells. But then Tunbridge Wells was filled
with frumps. Oh, yes. He remembered now. She was usually to be seen
leading a pair of Poms on a leash.
"You see, I didn't know if you'd be staying on here," he went on,
retaining Nora's hand, "and I wanted to catch you. I'm off in a day or
two myself."
"Won't you sit down? Mr. Hornby--Miss Pringle."
"How d'you do?"
Mr. Hornby's glance skimmed lightly over Miss Pringle's surface and
returned at once to Nora's more pleasing face.
"Everything go off O. K.?" he inquired genially.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Funeral, I mean. Mother went. Regular outing for her."
Miss Pringle stiffened visibly in her chair and began to study the
pattern in the rug at her feet with an absorbed interest. Nora was
conscious of a wild desire to laugh, but with a heroic effort succeeded
in keeping her face straight out of deference to her elderly friend.
"Really?" she said, in a faint voice.
"Oh, yes," went on young Hornby with unabated cheerfulness. "You see,
mother's getting on. I'm the child of her old age--Benjamin, don't you
know. Benjamin and Sarah, you know," he explained, apparently for the
benefit of Miss Pringle, as he pointedly turned to address this final
remark to her.
"I understand perfectly," said Miss Pringle icily, "but it wasn't
Sarah."
"Wasn't it? When one of her old friends dies," he went on to Nora,
"mother always goes to the funeral and says to herself: 'Well, I've seen
_her_ out, anyhow!' Then she comes back and eats muffins for tea. She
always eats muffins after she's been to a funeral."
"The maid said you wanted to see me about something in particular," Nora
gently reminded him.
"That's right, I was forgetting."
He wheeled suddenly once more on Miss Pringle, who had arrived at that
stage in her study of the rug when she was carefully tracing out the
pattern with the point of her umbrella.
"If Sarah wasn't Benjamin's mother, whose mother was she?"
"If you want to know, I recommend you to read your Bible," retorted that
lady with something approaching heat.
Mr. Hornby slapped his knee. "I thought it was a stumper," he remarked
with evident satisfaction.
"The fact is, I'm going to Canada and mother told me you had a brother
or something out there."
"A brother, not a something," said Nora, with a smile.
"And she said, perhaps you wouldn't mind giving me a letter to him."
"I will with pleasure. But I'm afraid he won't be much use to you. He's
a farmer and he lives miles away from anywhere."
"But I'm going in for farming."
"You are? What on earth for?"
"I've jolly well got to do something," said Hornby with momentary gloom,
"and I think farming's about the best thing I can do. One gets a lot of
shooting and riding yon know. And then there are tennis parties and
dances. And you make a pot of money, there's no doubt about that."
"But I thought you were in some motor business in London."
"Well, I was, in a way. But--I thought you'd have heard about it.
Mother's been telling everybody. Governor won't speak to me. Altogether,
things are rotten. I want to get out of this beastly country as quick as
I can."
"Would you like me to give you the letter at once?" said Nora, going
over to an escritoire that stood near the window.
"I wish you would. Fact is," he went on, addressing no one in
particular, as Nora was already deep in her letter and Miss Pringle,
having exhausted the possibilities of the rug, was gazing stonily into
space, "I'm broke. I was all right as long as I stuck to bridge; I used
to make money on that. Over a thousand a year."
"What!"
Horror was stronger than Miss Pringle's resolution to take no further
part in the conversation with this extraordinary and apparently
unprincipled young man.
"Playing regularly, you know. If I hadn't been a fool I'd have stuck to
that, but I got bitten with chemi."
"With what?" asked Nora, over her shoulder.
"Chemin de fer. Never heard of it? I got in the habit of going to
Thornton's. I suppose you never heard of him either. He keeps a gambling
hell. Gives you a slap-up supper for nothing, as much pop as you can
drink, and cashes your checks like a bird. The result is, I've lost
every bob I had and then Thornton sued me on a check I'd given him. The
governor forked out, but he says I've got to go to Canada. I'm never
going to gamble again, I can tell you that."
"Oh, well, that's something," murmured Nora cheerfully.
"You can't make money at chemi," went on Hornby, relapsing once more
into gloom; "the _cagnotte's_ bound to clear you out in the end. When I
come back I'm going to stick to bridge. There are always plenty of mugs
about, and if you have a good head for cards, you can't help making an
income out of it."
"But I thought you said you were never going----" began Miss Pringle,
but, thinking better of it, abandoned her sentence in mid-air.
"Here is your letter," said Nora, holding it out to him.
"Thanks, awfully. I daresay I shan't want it, you know. I expect I shall
get offered a job the moment I land, but there's no harm having it. I'll
be getting along."
"Good-by, then, and good luck."
"Good-by," he said, shaking hands with Nora and Miss Pringle.
"Nora, why don't you go out to Canada?" said Miss Pringle thoughtfully,
as soon as the door had closed after young Hornby. "Now your brother has
a farm of his own, I should think----"
"My brother's married," interrupted Nora quickly. "He married four years
ago."
"You never told me."
"I couldn't."
"Why? Isn't his wife--isn't his wife nice?"
"She was a waitress at a scrubby little hotel in Winnipeg."
"What _are_ you going to do then?"
"I? I'm going to look out for another situation."
Miss Pringle shook her head sadly.
"Well, I must be going. Mrs. Hubbard will be back from her drive by this
time. She's sure to have you in for tea or something before you go.
She's always been quite fond of you. At any rate, I'll see you again, of
course."
"Oh, yes, indeed."
Nora was thankful to be alone once more. She wanted to think it all out.
What a day it had been. Starting with such high hopes to end only in
utter disaster. She felt completely exhausted by the emotions she had
undergone. Time enough to plan to-morrow. To-night she needed rest.
Two days later, in the late afternoon, she found herself in the train
for London, the second journey she had taken in ten years. Once, three
years before, Miss Wickham had been persuaded to go up and pay the James
Wickhams a short visit and had taken Nora with her.
It could hardly have been described as a pleasure trip. Miss Wickham
detested visiting and had only yielded to her nephew's importunities
because she had never been in his London house to stay any time and had
an avid curiosity to see how they lived. She had of course disapproved
of everything she saw about the establishment. But, as it was no part of
her purpose to let the fact be known to her relatives, she had in a
large measure vented her consequent ill-humor upon her unfortunate
companion.
The last few days had seemed full, indeed. No matter how little one may
really care for a place, the process of uprooting after ten years is not
an easy one. Mr. Wynne had been to see her to renew his offer of
assistance and counsel in any plan she might have for the future and she
had spent an hour with the good doctor and his wife. The dreaded
invitation from Mrs. Hubbard had duly arrived and had turned out to be
for dinner, an extraordinary honor. Nora had accepted it entirely on
Miss Pringle's account. Mrs. Hubbard had been condescension itself and
had even gone the length of excusing Miss Pringle from the evening's
game of bezique, in order that she might have a farewell chat with her
friend.
She had mildly deprecated Miss Wickham's carelessness in not altering
her will, but had reminded Miss Marsh that she should be grateful to her
late employer for having had such kindly intentions toward her, vaguely
ending her remarks with the statement that as her dear husband had
always said in this imperfect world one had often to consider
intentions.
It was from her more humble friends that Nora found it hardest to part.
She had had tea with the gardener's wife and children of whom she was
genuinely fond. But it was the parting from Kate that had brought the
tears to her eyes. She had confided to that motherly soul how large she
had loomed in the rosy plans she had made while she still had
expectations from Miss Wickham, and been assured in turn that Kate
couldn't have fancied herself happier than she would have been in
looking after her, and the faithful Kate refused to regard the plan as
anything more than postponed. It developed that she was an adept in
telling fortunes with tea leaves. She hoped her dear Miss Marsh wouldn't
consider it a liberty for her to say so, but in every forecast that Kate
had made for herself in the last twelfth month, Miss Marsh had always
been mixed up, which showed beyond the peradventure of a doubt that they
were to meet again.
It was already dusk when London was reached, but Nora had an address of
an inexpensive little private hotel which the doctor's wife had given
her. She had written ahead to engage a room so that her mind was at ease
on that subject. Not knowing exactly where the street might be, further
than that it led off the Strand, she indulged herself in the novel
luxury of a taxi and drove to her new lodgings in state.
"If it isn't too much out of the way, would you take me by way of
Trafalgar Square, please."
The chauffeur touched his cap. His "Yes, Miss," was non-committal.
She was conscious of an unusual feeling of exaltation as she went along.
London, while it can be one of the most depressing cities in the world
when one is alone and friendless, quickens the imagination. As they went
through Trafalgar Square and caught a fleeting glimpse of the National
Gallery, Nora resolved that she would give herself a real treat and
renew old acquaintance with that institution as well as see the Wallace
collection and the Tate Gallery, both of which would be new to her. She
realized more poignantly than ever how starved her love of beauty had
been for the last ten years. It awoke in her afresh with the thought
that for a few days, at least, she could permit herself the luxury of
gratifying it.
She was shown to her room by a neat maid who said she would see what
might be done in the way of a light tea. As a rule breakfast was the
only repast that was supposed to be furnished. But she was quite sure
Miss Horn, the proprietor, would, in view of the fact that the young
lady was a stranger in London and would hardly know where to go alone
for a bite of dinner, make an exception.
Nora thanked her and set about making the bare little room, which was
quite at the top of the house, look a little more homelike by unpacking
some of her own things. After all, she reflected, it wasn't much less
cheerful than the room she had had for ten years. Perhaps her late
participation in the splendors of Miss Wickham's guest chamber, which
had been part of Dr. Evans' prescription, had spoiled her for simpler
joys. She laughed aloud at the thought.
By the time she had had her supper, which was sufficiently good, and
written a few notes--one to the doctor's wife to say that she thought
she would be quite comfortable in her new quarters, and one to the head
of the agency through which she had obtained her post with Miss
Wickham--Nora found herself ready for bed.
The next day dawned bright and fine; one of those delightful spring days
to which the great city occasionally treats you as if to protest against
the injustice of her reputation for being dark and gloomy.
There were a number of pleasant looking people in the coffee room when
Nora went down to breakfast, which turned out to be abundant and well
cooked. Having inquired her direction--a sense of location was not one
of her gifts--she set out gaily enough for a whole day of sightseeing.
She might never get another position and have eventually to go out as a
charwoman--the detail that she would be illy equipped for any such
undertaking she humorously dismissed--but a day or two of unalloyed
enjoyment she was going to have, come what might.
The day was a complete success. Having done several of the picture
galleries, lunched and dined frugally at one of the A. B. C.
restaurants, Nora returned at nightfall, tired but happy. Oh, the
blessed freedom of it!
The next morning on coming down stairs she found at her plate a letter
from the agency. The management of affairs, it seemed, had passed into
other hands. Doubtless Miss Marsh's name would be found on the books of
several years back, but it was not familiar to the new director.
However, they would, of course, be pleased to put themselves at Miss
Marsh's service. If she would be good enough to give them an early call,
bringing any and all references she might have, etc., etc.
Miss Marsh tore the note into tiny fragments. The agency could wait,
everything could wait, for the moment. She must have her fling, the
first taste of freedom in all these years. After that----!