"I have not. Perhaps it would have been more business-like if I _had_,
but I accepted your word. I asked a simple question because at the
moment I happened to be feeling particularly thankful that I could
afford to share Pastimes with you, and I imagined that you might
possibly feel the same."
I paused, waiting expectantly for words of apology and excuse, but none
came. Charmion stared at me below knitted brows, and said shortly:--
"Yes, it is true. You ought to have business references. You shall
_have_ them! My lawyer shall write to you at once. I was a wretch to
speak so sharply, Evelyn, but--you touched a sore point! Thankful? No,
indeed! Money is a curse. The greatest handicap a woman can have. If
I had my life to live again, I should choose to be a penniless working
girl!"
She had taken off her rings and dropped them in a sparkling little heap
on her lap, the while she softly polished her long pink nails. Her
padded kimona was of pink silk, heavily embroidered with roses, her feet
were thrust into slippers of the same shade and material. A more
luxurious figure it would be difficult to imagine. I rolled an
expressive eye, and she shrugged her shoulders in response.
"Oh, of course, I am an artificial product, and the chains hold fast. I
don't take any particular interest in my appearance, but it is an
ingrained habit to go through a certain routine. It would annoy me to
have dull nails, so I polish them as you see; also, though I am dead
tired, I shall have my hair brushed for half an hour before going to
bed, and then steam my foolish face. It bores me profoundly, but it
would bore me more to feel unkempt. So far as that goes, I should do
exactly the same on twopence a week!"
"Minus a maid and appliances?"
Charmion shrugged daintily.
"Soap and water are cheap, fortunately."
"I beg your pardon! Not _your_ kind of soap. You might find even hot
water a difficulty. I imagine that girls on twopence a week have to
consider the price of boiling a kettle. Their hot water is not `laid
on'. Moreover, the poor dears must be `dead tired,' in a way which you
and I cannot even imagine."
"It is their life," Charmion said loftily.
"Excuse me--I mean to _live_! That's why I am thankful to have money,
because it gives me more scope to live thoroughly."
"Poor innocent! What a delusion. Money shuts the door of your cage. A
golden cage, excellently padded, but--_its bars shut out all the best
things of life_!"
I laughed again, for the statement was so opposed to all accepted
theories.
"_What_ best things, for example?"
"Confidence," said Charmion solemnly. "Trust in one's
fellow-creatures." She lifted her heavy lids as she spoke, and her eyes
looked into mine. In their grey depths was a blank, empty expression,
which once seen is never forgotten, for it speaks of a hurt so deep and
keen that the memory of it breaks the heart. I leapt from my seat and
wrapped Charmion in my arms.
"Oh, my dear, my dear, there is one person you can trust! Whatever
happens, Charmion, you can count on me! Darling! I know you have had
troubles. I don't ask to hear about them. I only want to be allowed to
love you, and to do all I can to help and to comfort. Never, never be
afraid to ask for anything I can do. I would put you before myself,
Charmion, if it ever came to a choice between our different interests--I
would indeed! Don't you believe it is true?"
She laid her two hands on my shoulders and smiled.
"You dear thing! I believe it is. You would sacrifice yourself for me,
and I should accept the sacrifice. It is the way we are made. You to
give, and I to demand. Let us pray, my dear, that the day may never
come when our interests do clash. Of a certainty, poor Evelyn, you
would come off worse!"