by H. G. Wells
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE CAMPAIGN OPENS.
On Saturday Lewisham was first through the folding doors. In a momenthe reappeared with a document extended. Mrs. Lewisham stood arrestedwith her dress skirt in her hand, astonished at the astonishment onhis face. "_I_ say!" said Lewisham; "just look here!"
She looked at the book that he held open before her, and perceivedthat its vertical ruling betokened a sordid import, that its list ofitems in an illegible mixture of English and German was lengthy. "1kettle of coals 6d." occurred regularly down that portentous array andbuttoned it all together. It was Madam Gadow's first bill. Ethel tookit out of his hand and examined it closer. It looked no smallercloser. The overcharges were scandalous. It was curious how the humourof calling a scuttle "kettle" had evaporated.
That document, I take it, was the end of Mr. Lewisham's informalhoneymoon. Its advent was the snap of that bright Prince Rupert'sdrop; and in a moment--Dust. For a glorious week he had lived in thepersuasion that life was made of love and mystery, and now he wasreminded with singular clearness that it was begotten of a strugglefor existence and the Will to Live. "Confounded imposition!" fumedMr. Lewisham, and the breakfast table was novel and ominous,mutterings towards anger on the one hand and a certain consternationon the other. "I must give her a talking to this afternoon," saidLewisham at his watch, and after he had bundled his books into theshiny black bag, he gave the first of his kisses that was not adistinct and self-subsisting ceremony. It was usage and done in ahurry, and the door slammed as he went his way to the schools. Ethelwas not coming that morning, because by special request and becauseshe wanted to help him she was going to copy out some of his botanicalnotes which had fallen into arrears.
On his way to the schools Lewisham felt something suspiciously near asinking of the heart. His preoccupation was essentiallyarithmetical. The thing that engaged his mind to the exclusion of allother matters is best expressed in the recognised business form.
Dr. L s. d. Cr. L s. d Mr. L.{ 13 10 4-1/2 By bus fares to SouthCash in hand { Kensington (late) 0 0 2 Mrs. L.{ 0 11 7 By six lunches at the Students' Club 0 5 2-1/2At bank 45 0 0 By two packets of cig-To scholarship 1 1 0 arettes (to smoke after dinner) 0 0 6 By marriage and elope- ment 4 18 10 By necessary subse- quent additions to bride's trousseau 0 16 1 By housekeeping exs. 1 1 4-1/2 By "A few little things" bought by housekeeper 0 15 3-1/2 By Madam Gadow for coal, lodging and attendance (as per account rendered) 1 15 0 By missing 0 0 4 By balance 50 3 2 ------------- ------------- L60 3 11-1/2 L60 3 11-1/2 ------------- -------------
From this it will be manifest to the most unbusiness like that,disregarding the extraordinary expenditure on the marriage, and the byno means final "few little things" Ethel had bought, outgoingsexceeded income by two pounds and more, and a brief excursion intoarithmetic will demonstrate that in five-and-twenty weeks the balanceof the account would be nothing.
But that guinea a week was not to go on for five-and-twenty weeks, butsimply for fifteen, and then the net outgoings will be well over threeguineas, reducing the "law" accorded our young couple totwo-and-twenty weeks. These details are tiresome and disagreeable, nodoubt, to the refined reader, but just imagine how much moredisagreeable they were to Mr. Lewisham, trudging meditative to theschools. You will understand his slipping out of the laboratory, andbetaking himself to the Educational Reading-room, and how it was thatthe observant Smithers, grinding his lecture notes against the nowimminent second examination for the "Forbes," was presently perplexedto the centre of his being by the spectacle of Lewisham intent upon apile of current periodicals, the _Educational Times_, the _Journal ofEducation_, the _Schoolmaster, Science and Art, The UniversityCorrespondent, Nature, The Athenaeum, The Academy_, and _The Author_.
Smithers remarked the appearance of a note-book, the jotting down ofmemoranda. He edged into the bay nearest Lewisham's table andapproached him suddenly from the flank. "What are _you_ after?" saidSmithers in a noisy whisper and with a detective eye on the papers. Heperceived Lewisham was scrutinising the advertisement column, and hisperplexity increased.
"Oh--nothing," said Lewisham blandly, with his hand falling casuallyover his memoranda; "what's your particular little game?"
"Nothing much," said Smithers, "just mooching round. You weren't atthe meeting last Friday?"
He turned a chair, knelt on it, and began whispering over the backabout Debating Society politics. Lewisham was inattentive andbrief. What had he to do with these puerilities? At last Smithers wentaway foiled, and met Parkson by the entrance. Parkson, by-the-bye, hadnot spoken to Lewisham since their painful misunderstanding. He made awide detour to his seat at the end table, and so, and by a singularrectitude of bearing and a dignified expression, showed himself awareof Lewisham's offensive presence.
Lewisham's investigations were two-fold. He wanted to discover someway of adding materially to that weekly guinea by his own exertions,and he wanted to learn the conditions of the market for typewriting.For himself he had a vague idea, an idea subsequently abandoned, thatit was possible to get teaching work in evening classes during themonth of March. But, except by reason of sudden death, no eveningclass in London changes its staff after September until July comesround again. Private tuition, moreover, offered many attractions tohim, but no definite proposals. His ideas of his own possibilitieswere youthful or he would not have spent time in noting the conditionsof application for a vacant professorship in physics at the MelbourneUniversity. He also made a note of the vacant editorship of a monthlymagazine devoted to social questions. He would not have minded doingthat sort of thing at all, though the proprietor might. There wasalso a vacant curatorship in the Museum of Eton College.
The typewriting business was less varied and more definite. Those werethe days before the violent competition of the half-educated hadbrought things down to an impossible tenpence the thousand words, andthe prevailing price was as high as one-and-six. Calculating thatEthel could do a thousand words in an hour and that she could workfive or six hours in the day, it was evident that her contributions tothe household expenses would be by no means despicable; thirtyshillings a week perhaps. Lewisham was naturally elated at thisdiscovery. He could find no advertisements of authors or othersseeking typewriting, but he saw that a great number of typewritersadvertised themselves in the literary papers. It was evident Ethelalso must advertise. "'Scientific phraseology a speciality' might beput," meditated Lewisham. He returned to his lodgings in a hopefulmood with quite a bundle of memoranda of possible employments. Hespent five shillings in stamps on the way.
After lunch, Lewisham--a little short of breath-asked to see MadamGadow. She came up in the most affable frame of mind; nothing could befurther from the normal indignation of the British landlady. She wasvery voluble, gesticulatory and lucid, but unhappily bi-lingual, andat all the crucial points German. Mr. Lewisham's natural politenessrestrained him from too close a pursuit across the boundary of the twoimperial tongues. Quite half an hour's amicable discussion led at lastto a reduction of sixpence, and all parties professed themselvessatisfied with this result.
Madam Gadow was quite cool even at the end. Mr. Lewisham was flushedin the face, red-eared, and his hair slightly disordered, but thatsixpence was at any rate an admission of the justice of hisclaim. "She was evidently
trying it on," he said almost apologeticallyto Ethel. "It was absolutely necessary to present a firm front toher. I doubt if we shall have any trouble again....
"Of course what she says about kitchen coals is perfectly just."
Then the young couple went for a walk in Kensington Gardens, and--thespring afternoon was so warm and pleasant--sat on two attractive greenchairs near the band-stand, for which Lewisham had subsequently to paytwopence. They had what Ethel called a "serious talk." She was reallywonderfully sensible, and discussed the situation exhaustively. Shewas particularly insistent upon the importance of economy in herdomestic disbursements and deplored her general ignorance veryearnestly. It was decided that Lewisham should get a good elementarytext-book of domestic economy for her private study. At homeMrs. Chaffery guided her house by the oracular items of "InquireWithin upon Everything," but Lewisham considered that workunscientific.
Ethel was also of opinion that much might be learnt from the sixpennyladies' papers--the penny ones had hardly begun in those days. She hadbought such publications during seasons of affluence, but chiefly, asshe now deplored, with an eye to the trimming of hats and such likevanities. The sooner the typewriter came the better. It occurred toLewisham with unpleasant suddenness that he had not allowed for thepurchase of a typewriter in his estimate of their resources. Itbrought their "law" down to twelve or thirteen weeks.
They spent the evening in writing and copying a number of letters,addressing envelopes and enclosing stamps. There were optimisticmoments.
"Melbourne's a fine city," said Lewisham, "and we should have aglorious voyage out." He read the application for the Melbourneprofessorship out loud to her, just to see how it read, and she wasgreatly impressed by the list of his accomplishments and successes.
"I did not, know you knew _half_ those things," she said, and becamedepressed at her relative illiteracy. It was natural, after suchencouragement, to write to the scholastic agents in a tone of assuredconsequence.
The advertisement for typewriting in the _Athenaeum_ troubled hisconscience a little. After he had copied out his draft with its"Scientific phraseology a speciality," fine and large, he saw thenotes she had written out for him. Her handwriting was still round andboyish, even as it had appeared in the Whortley avenue, but herpunctuation was confined to the erratic comma and the dash, and therewas a disposition to spell the imperfectly legible along the line ofleast resistance. However, he dismissed that matter with a resolve toread over and correct anything in that way that she might have senther to do. It would not be a bad idea, he thought parenthetically, ifhe himself read up some sound authority on the punctuation ofsentences.
They sat at this business quite late, heedless of the examination inbotany that came on the morrow. It was very bright and cosy in theirlittle room with their fire burning, the gas lit and the curtainsdrawn, and the number of applications they had written made themhopeful. She was flushed and enthusiastic, now flitting about theroom, now coming close to him and leaning over him to see what he haddone. At Lewisham's request she got him the envelopes from the chestof drawers. "You _are_ a help to a chap," said Lewisham, leaning backfrom the table, "I feel I could do anything for a girl likeyou--anything."
"_Really!_" she cried, "Really! Am I really a help?"
Lewisham's face and gesture, were all assent. She gave a little cry ofdelight, stood for a moment, and then by way of practicaldemonstration of her unflinching helpfulness, hurried round the tabletowards him with arms extended, "You dear!" she cried.
Lewisham, partially embraced, pushed his chair back with hisdisengaged arm, so that she might sit on his knee....
Who could doubt that she was a help?
