Why didnt you tell all this when Alice was here? inquired his mother, seeming herself again, though very grave.
Ill tell you. I thought it over, and it seems to me itll be better if Alice and Arry wait a while before they know whatll come to them. They cant take anything till theyre twenty-one. Alice is a good girl, but
He hesitated, having caught his mothers eye. He felt that this prudential course justified in a measure her anxiety.
Shes a girl, he pursued, and we know that a girl with a lot o money gets run after by men who care nothing about her and a good deal about the money. Then its quite certain Arry wont be any the better for fancying himself rich. Hs going to give us trouble as it is, I can see that. We shall have to take another house, of course, and we cant keep them from knowing that theres money fallen to me. But theres no need to talk about the figures, and if we can make them think its only me thats better off, so much the better. Alice neednt go to work, and Im glad of it; a girls proper place is at home. You can tell her you want her to help in the new house. Arry had better keep his place awhile. I shouldnt wonder if I find work for him myself before long Ive got plans, but I shant talk about them just yet.
He spoke then of the legal duties which fell upon him as next-of-kin, explaining the necessity of finding two sureties on taking out letters of administration. Mr. Yottle had offered himself for one; the other Richard hoped to find in Mr. Westlake, a leader of the Socialist movement.
You want us to go into a big house? asked Mrs. Mutimer. She seemed to pay little attention to the wider aspects of the change, but to fix on the details she could best understand, those which put her fears in palpable shape.
I didnt say a big one, but a larger than this. Were not going to play the do-nothing gentlefolk; but all the same our life wont and cant be what it has been. Theres no choice. Youve worked hard all your life, mother, and its only fair you should come in for a bit of rest. Well find a house somewhere out Green Lanes way, or in Highbury or Holloway.
He laughed again.
So theres the best of itthe worst of it, as you say. Just take a night to turn it over. Most likely I shall go to Belwick again to-morrow afternoon.
He paused, and his mother, after bending her head to bite off an end of cotton, asked
Youll tell Emma?
I shall go round to-night.
A little later Richard left the house for this purpose. His step was firmer than ever, his head more upright Walking along the crowded streets, he saw nothing; there was a fixed smile on his lips, the smile of a man to whom the world pays tribute. Never having suffered actual want, and blessed with sanguine temperament, he knew nothing of that fierce exultation, that wrathful triumph over fate, which comes to men of passionate mood smitten by the lightning-flash of unhoped prosperity. At present he was well-disposed to all men; even against capitalists and profitmongers he could not have railed heartily Capitalists? Was he not one himself? Aye, but he would prove himself such a one as you do not meet with every day; and the foresight of deeds which should draw the eyes of men upon him, which should shout his name abroad, softened his judgments with the charity of satisfied ambition. He would be the glorified representative of his class. He would show the world how a self-taught working man conceived the duties and privileges of wealth. He would shame those dunder-headed, callous-hearted aristocrats, those ravening bourgeois. Opportunitywhat else had he wanted? No longer would his voice be lost in petty lecture-halls, answered only by the applause of a handful of mechanics. Ere many months had passed, crowds should throng to hear him; his gospel would be trumpeted over the land. To what might he not attain? The educated, the refined, men and women
He was at the entrance of a dark passage, where his feet stayed themselves by force of habit. He turned out of the street, and walked more slowly towards the house in which Emma Vine and her sisters lived. Having reached the door, he paused, but again took a few paces forward. Then he came back and rang the uppermost of five bells. In waiting, he looked vaguely up and down the street.
It was Emma herself who opened to him. The dim light showed a smile of pleasure and surprise.
Youve come to ask about Jane? she said. She hasnt been quite so bad since last night.
Im glad to hear it. Can I come up?
Will you?
He entered, and Emma closed the door. It was pitch dark.
I wish Id brought a candle down, Emma said, moving back along the passage. Mind theres a pram at the foot of the stairs.
The perambulator was avoided successfully by both, and they ascended the bare boards of the staircase. On each landing prevailed a distinct odour; first came the damp smell of newly-washed clothes, then the scent of fried onions, then the workroom of some small craftsman exhaled varnish. The topmost floor seemed the purest; it was only stuffy.
Richard entered an uncarpeted room which had to serve too many distinct purposes to allow of its being orderly in appearance. In one corner was a bed, where two little children lay asleep; before the window stood a sewing-machine, about which was heaped a quantity of linen; a table in the midst was half covered with a cloth, on which was placed a loaf and butter, the other half being piled with several dresses requiring the needle. Two black patches on the low ceiling showed in what positions the lamp stood by turns.
Emmas eldest sister was moving about the room. Hers were the children; her husband had been dead a year or more. She was about thirty years of age, and had a slatternly appearance; her face was peevish, and seemed to grudge the half-smile with which it received the visitor.
Youve no need to look round you, she said. Were in & regular pig-stye, and likely to be. Wheres there a chair?
She shook some miscellaneous articles on to the floor to provide a seat.
For mercys sake dont speak too loud, and wake them children. Berties had the earache; hes been crying all day. What with him and Jane weve had a blessing, I can tell you. Can I put these supper things away, Emma?
Ill do it, was the others reply. Wont you have a bit more, Kate?
Ive got no mind for eating. Well, you may cut a slice and put it on the mantelpiece. Ill go and sit with Jane.
Richard sat and looked about the room absently. The circumstances of his own family had never fallen below the point at which it is possible to have regard for decency; the growing up of himself and of his brothers and sister had brought additional resources to meet extended needs, and the Mutimer characteristics had formed a safeguard against improvidence. He was never quite at his ease in this poverty-cumbered room, which he seldom visited.
You ought to have a fire, he said.
Theres one in the other room, replied Kate. One has to serve us.
But you cant cook there.
Cook? We can boil a potato, and thats about all the cooking we can do now-a-days.
She moved to the door as she spoke, and, before leaving the room, took advantage of Richards back being turned to make certain exhortatory signs to her sister. Emma averted her head.
Kate closed the door behind her. Emma, having removed the eatables to the cupboard, came near to Richard and placed her arm gently upon his shoulders. He looked at her kindly.
Kates been so put about with Bertie, she said, in a tone of excuse. And she was up nearly all last night.