Leaving the workmen to carry out the necessary decorations at Pastimes,
Charmion and I adjourned to London to buy carpets and curtains, and a
score of necessary oddments. We found it a fascinating occupation, and
grew more and more complimentary to each other as each day passed by.
"Charmion, you have exquisite taste! That's just the shade I had chosen
myself."
"You have a perfect eye for colouring, Evelyn. I always know that your
choice will be exactly my own."
Sometimes we saw the humour of these self-satisfied compliments,
sometimes we were so busy and engrossed that we accepted them
open-mouthed. I suppose in every mind personal preference is magnified
into the standard of perfection, and all the arguing in the world will
fail to convince A that he is--artistically speaking--colour-blind, or B
that her drawing-room is a bazaar of trumpery odds and ends! All the
more reason to be thankful that we agreed. We were convinced that our
taste was unique; but supposing for one moment that it was bad, we
should at least share a comfortable delusion!
The oak entrance hall was to be ornamented with old delft. The curtains
and chair coverings were to be of the same shade of blue. The parquet
floor was to be supplied with rugs of warm Eastern colours. Exactly the
right shade of violet-purple had been found for the drawing-room, and I
should be ashamed to say how many shops we ransacked for the chair
coverings, until at last we found the identical pattern to satisfy our
demands. Certainly I should be ashamed to confess what we paid for the
piece. Charmion was appallingly extravagant! That was another
discovery which I had made in the last days. It seemed as if she found
a positive satisfaction in paying abnormal prices, not with the
purse-proud bombast of the _nouveau riche_, but rather with the almost
savage relief of a slave who shakes off a few links of a hated chain. I
was a little alarmed at the total to which our purchases amounted; but I
comforted myself with the thought, nothing new would be required for a
long, long time, and that, if I found my income running short, I could
always retire to my flat, and live on a figurative twopence under
Bridget's clever management.
Charmion had heard all about the flat by this time, and had hurt my
feelings by treating the whole proposal as a ridiculous joke. She made
no attempt to dissuade me--had we not agreed never to interfere in each
other's doings?--but she laughed, and said, "Dear goose," and arched her
fine brows expressively as she asked how long a lease I proposed to
take, "Or, rather, I should say, how _short_?"
Now I had myself inclined to a short lease with the option of staying
on, but opposition stiffened my back, and I there and then decided to go
and look at several possibilities which I had hitherto put aside as
impracticable because they had to be taken for a term of three to five
years. Bridget would go with me--dear, lawless, laughter-loving
Bridget, who entered into the play with refreshing zest. Bridget had
the real characteristic Irish faculty of looking upon life as an amusing
game, and the more novel and unorthodox the game was, the better she was
pleased. "Sure it's your own face! It's for you to do what you please
with it!" was the easy comment with which she accepted my proposed
disguise. She undertook to do most of the work of the flat without a
qualm, and shed an easy tear of emotion over the sorrows and
difficulties which it was to be my mission to reduce. "Oh, the poor
creatures! Will they be starving around us, Miss Evelyn, and the little
children crying out for bread?"
"N-not exactly that," I explained. "I want to work among gentlefolk,
Bridget--poor gentlefolk, who suffer most of all, because they are too
proud to ask for help. But they will probably be short of time, and
service, and probably of strength, too, and when I get to know them,
they will let me help them in these ways, though they would not accept
my money--"
Bridget looked sceptical.
"I wouldn't put it past them!"