THE ENTERPRISE CLUB.
In one of the City of London's busiest thoroughfares, among the numerous
plates bearing the names and callings of the occupants of the different
chambers or offices in a certain big building, is a small plate with the
words 'Enterprise Club.' That is all the outward sign of the fact that
the only ladies' club in the City, a veritable haven of refuge for
lady-clerks and secretaries, has its quarters here.
It was here that Stella sat one lunch-time, looking so worried that a
ladylike-looking girl, to whom she had spoken once or twice, asked her
if she had a headache.
'No, no, thank you; I am quite well,' replied Stella, her brows still
knitted.
The girls at the Enterprise contented themselves with a nod of the head,
or a 'Good-morning,' to Stella, whom they put down as proud and
stuck-up. But this girl had gone a little farther, and had even elicited
the fact that she had a younger sister; and to-day, seeing Miss Wharton
look so grave, it occurred to her that it might be something connected
with this younger sister that was troubling her, and she asked, 'Is your
sister quite well? I have never seen her here. Doesn't she ever come?'
'My sister? No, she is not a member; she is only a schoolgirl. I did not
think it would be allowed,' said Stella.
'She could come as a visitor, and I am sure if you asked the secretary
she would make an exception and allow her to join. It would be so nice
if she could stay and play cards or dominoes after office hours on these
cold winter afternoons,' suggested the girl.
Stella's face brightened up so wonderfully that her companion guessed
that this was the difficulty. 'If she could, I should be so glad; she is
very good, but she feels the dullness of life in lodgings, and I am
beginning to be quite anxious about her. She would like to come here
sometimes, I am sure.'
'Then let us ask the secretary at once, and she can come this evening,'
suggested the good-natured girl.
The secretary gave a ready consent, and that afternoon, instead of going
straight home, Vava was brought into the Enterprise Club, and sank with
a little exclamation of pleasure into one of the comfortable
easy-chairs, and looked round the tastefully furnished room. She was
soon invited to play a game of draughts by one of the younger girls, for
Vava did not inspire awe as Stella did.
'If next Saturday is wet or horrid like last Saturday, I shall ask
Stella to bring me here,' Vava announced, as she moved one of her 'men.'
'On Saturday! I should have thought you would want to get away from the
City as soon as possible! I should, I know,' said the other.
'But you are staying this evening,' Vava pointed out.
'That is because my chum Amy is working late; I always wait for her
rather than go home alone; but on Saturdays we generally go for a long
bicycle ride or something, to get some fresh air and fresh ideas,'
announced the girl, hopping over two of Vava's 'men.'
'I wish I rode a bicycle; but we always rode horses in Scotland--at
least Stella did; I had a pony,' explained Vava.
'This must be a change for you!' cried the other; but said no more, for
the game absorbed her attention.
But the result of this conversation was that, the next Saturday being
wet, Vava's opponent suddenly said to her chum, 'Amy, we can't cycle
to-day; suppose we lunch at the Enterprise, and have some games with
those two new girls in mourning?'
'Oh the Misses Wharton? Have you fallen in love with the beautiful Miss
Wharton too?' replied the girl called Amy.
'Is that their name? But it isn't Miss Wharton I am thinking of; it's
her younger sister. Fancy, they have been used to riding their own
horses, and now they walk to the City and back! She wants to stay at the
Enterprise on Saturday, so they can't have very nice "diggings,"'
replied her companion.
'It's not a bad place to spend a wet afternoon in; so, if you like, we
will lunch there; it's just as comfortable as Bleak House,' replied Amy.
'Yes, but one gets tired of living in a crowd. Oh how I wish we could
afford a cottage in the country!' said the younger girl.
'But we cannot, Eva; so let us try to be contented with our lot,'
replied Amy.
By way of showing her content, Eva grumbled loudly at it to Vava. The
four were sitting at the same table, having lunch, and she found only
too willing a listener in Vava Wharton to sympathise with her.
'Cheer up, Eva; things might be worse. Here we are sitting on a wet and
bitterly cold afternoon in a pleasant, warm room, in comfortable chairs,
surrounded by newspapers, magazines, and fashion papers! What more could
you have if you were a fashionable young lady?' inquired her chum Amy.
'I could have this room as my own, and money to spend on the fashions I
look at, and somewhere to show them off better than a stuffy office or
Bleak House,' retorted Eva.
'Bleak House! That is the name of one of Dickens's books!' exclaimed
Vava.
'It is the name of a large hostel or boarding-house for ladies who earn
their own living, where Eva and I live, and it is really quite
comfortable, only that it is not home,' said Amy, and she looked
sympathetically at Eva, who was only sixteen, and had begun early to
work for her daily bread.
There was silence for a moment, and the four young faces looked as grave
as if they had the cares of the world upon their shoulders.
Suddenly Eva broke out, 'I wouldn't mind if I had something different to
look forward to; but to think of going on for years the same dull grind
and back to the same crowd of girls, who can talk of nothing but their
office or else roller-skating; and Amy does not approve of going out to
amusements every evening.'
'We wanted to take a house, but it is too expensive, and the one we
looked at was dreadfully dear, although it had no garden. Oh how I would
love a house with a garden! Some of the girls at school have gardens,
and even greenhouses, for they bring leaves and flowers to school for
our painting and botany lessons, and yet they are not rich,' observed
Vava.
'All houses are not dear. Girls! I have an idea; let's take a house
between us--the four of us!' cried Eva suddenly.
Stella looked up, startled at this abrupt suggestion; but Eva's chum
Amy, who was used to her ways, only smiled, and said jestingly, 'Where
do you mean to take a house, and how would you furnish it?'
'In the suburbs; and as for furnishing, we could do that on the
hire-system. It shall have a garden and a lawn and a tree--I must have a
tree; it's so ideal to sit and have tea in the garden under a tree, or
read a book in a canvas-chair on a summer's day,' replied Eva.
'I don't care for the hire-system, and houses with gardens and lawns and
trees are not to be found in London. I am afraid we must wait until we
are old ladies, and can retire on our savings and live in some little
country village,' said Amy, laying her hand upon Eva's and smiling at
her.
Possibly the conversation would have ended here but for Vava, and
something that she said. 'But couldn't we have a little house in an
unfashionable part? All the girls at school have houses or flats of
their own; it would be so nice to have a home.'
'So we will have a home. Why shouldn't we? Lots of families live on two
hundred pounds a year, and that would be a pound a week each. Why, the
Smiths are a family of five, and they have only about two hundred, and
they have a garden and an arbour covered with ivy and creepers and
things!' cried Eva.
'Oh where is that?' asked Vava eagerly, her eyes shining.
'My dear Eva!' protested Amy, looking apologetically at Stella, who was
very grave and silent.
'Well, what is the matter?' demanded Eva.
'You do talk such nonsense. How can four people, who are strangers to
each other, suddenly take a house and live together? Why, we do not even
know each other's names!' said Amy, laughing.
'My name is Eva Barnes, and this is my greatest and best friend, Amy
Overall,' said Eva promptly; and then, turning to Vava, she added,
'Let's talk it over by ourselves; old people are always cautious,' and
she and Vava began to talk in low tones. Presently Eva took out a pencil
and note-book, and began making elaborate calculations.
The two 'elders' smiled at them. They were not more than twenty-one and
twenty-four respectively; but they let the younger ones whisper nonsense
together, while they talked of books; and Stella found that Amy Overall
had read the same sort of books that she had, which surprised her, for
hers had been chosen for her by her literary father.
'My father was a professor at Cambridge, and that is why I have read
these books,' explained Amy, delighted to find some one whose tastes
were congenial; in fact, it is to be doubted which of the two was most
pleased.
They were so interested in discussing a certain author that they took
little notice of the other two. Every now and then a low laugh told them
that the two younger girls were enjoying themselves as much as the 'old
people,' as they called their elders.
'Now,' cried Eva, 'let us lay a statement of accounts before them!'
The elders stopped in their conversation, and looked at Eva and Vava,
whose faces were flushed with excitement, and whose eyes were dancing as
Stella had not seen Vava's dance since she left Lomore, not even on
their motor drive.
Amy took the sheet of paper Eva handed her, saying, 'Eva is a great
mathematician; she takes after her father.'
'Barnes! Did he write an arithmetic?' inquired Vava; and when Eva
nodded, she added, 'Why, I use it at school!'
'What accounts have you been making out?' asked Stella in a friendly
tone, for this last fact seemed a link between them as the daughters of
literary men.
'Our new house and its expenses,' announced Vava.
Amy looked half-fearfully at Stella, for she thought she would be
annoyed at the girl's persistence; but, to her surprise, Stella read the
paper through with apparent interest.
'Rent, L34; taxes, L12; food, L90; firing and gas, L20; servant, L12;
washing, L12, extras, L20--total, L200,' she read out.
'That's only the summary of it; here are the details. We have made out a
menu for a week and washing for four people and household linen,'
explained Eva.
'It is a step which requires consideration; we might not care for each
other's company on closer acquaintance,' said Stella.
But Vava interrupted impulsively, 'We have arranged for that; we would
have two sitting-rooms, and only come together when we liked; and,
anyway, they couldn't be as disagreeable as our landlady. Fancy, she
won't cook in the evenings, and she always wants to know if we are not
going out to friends on Sunday, and it makes us feel as if we ought to
go somewhere out of her way.'
Stella did not quite like Vava's frankness. Seeing which, Amy hastened
to say, 'That was our experience in lodgings, and one of the reasons we
gave them up. It is very difficult to know what to do; but at Bleak
House we have not that difficulty. I should like you to see it. Would
you'--here she hesitated and coloured--'would you and your sister give
us the pleasure of your company to-morrow? We are so many that a few
more make no difference, and we are encouraged to bring our friends.'
It would have been difficult to refuse an invitation so diffidently
given; besides, Stella liked Amy Overall, and Vava's eyes were begging
her to say 'Yes,' and she did so, and was rewarded by the evident
pleasure which she had given every one.
'Stella, couldn't we do it, don't you think?' pleaded Vava on the way
home.
'Take a house, do you mean? I don't know, Vava; we may some day--who
knows?--but not yet awhile,' replied Stella, who was anxious not to damp
her sister's delight in these castles in the air.
'If you only knew how horrid it is to hear the other girls talking of
going home; they have all got homes but me,' said Vava wistfully.
Stella tried to comfort her, and began to talk of their visit next day,
and of how they could get there after church, and Vava cheered up at the
thought of a day with Eva, who was so little older than she that they
got on very well together.
Amy meanwhile was taking Eva to task. 'You surely were not serious; and,
if not, do you think it was kind to raise hopes and put ideas which can
never be realised into that child's head?' she demanded severely.
'I was quite serious; it was a sudden inspiration, and, mark my words,
it will be realised!' declared Eva.
'Not by me; I am not going to run into all sorts of expenses which a
house always entails,' said Amy.
'Now, isn't that funny? It is always the unexpected that happens; one
would have expected the cautious Scotch Miss Wharton to be the one to
make objections, whereas she is inclined to risk it--I could see that in
the corner of her eye--and you are the timid one,' declared Eva.
'On the contrary, Miss Wharton was only too polite to crush you. When
she says she's ready to take a house with us I shall certainly be ready
to agree,' replied Amy Overall, feeling certain that she would not be
asked to do so.
'All right; that's a promise of which I shall remind you before long,
you will see,' said Eva; and then talked of the morrow and what they
should do with their visitors.