On the night of the same day, Robert called together the women of his household and in the bluntest words told them the strictest economy was hence-forward to be observed. He said the wastrie of the past three or four months was unbelievable, and it had to be made up by a steady curtailment of all household expenses. Then turning to his mother he asked, "in what direction she thought it best to begin?"
She answered promptly: "You are right, Robert. The expenses of the house have been very extravagant, and retrenchment is both wise and necessary. I think in the first place we ought to reduce the number of servants. One man can be spared from the stable, and the second man in the house is not a necessity. McNab must do with one kitchen girl, instead of two; and your son no longer needs a nurse. A boy of his age ought to wait on himself."
"David has not needed a nurse for a long time."
"_Who_ did you say?"
"David."
"I ordered you not to call the boy by that name, in my presence."
"It is his baptismal name. He has no other name."
"Call him Nebuchadnezzar, or Satan, or any name you like in your own room, but in my presence----"
"His name is always David. I was going to remind you that Ducie has been a general servant in the house for many months. She has a.s.sisted your chambermaid, helped McNab in the kitchen, and Jepson about the table. I think she has been the most effective maid in the house."
"She may have been chambermaid, cook, and butler rolled into one, but she is not wanted here, and the sooner she finds her way back to Kendal the better every one will like it."
Then Theodora quietly gathered the silks with which she was working, and without noise or hurry left the room. She heard her mother-in-law"s scornful laugh, and her husband"s angry voice as she closed the door, but she allowed neither to detain her in an atmosphere so highly charged with hatred and opposition.
In about an hour Robert strode into her parlor, and with a lowering face and peevish voice asked: "Why did you go away?"
"There was no further reason for my presence, and more than one reason why it was better for me to go away."
"It is evident you feel no interest in the curtailment of my expenses."
"I am sure that curtailment is not necessary. You gave your shareholders a dividend of ten-per-cent a short time ago, and you are always complaining that the business is too large for you to carry alone. And I do not see that there is the smallest curtailment in your personal expenses."
"Pray what have you to do with my personal expenses?"
"I speak of them because I personally have no expenses from which to draw conclusions."
"I suppose you have as many personal expenses as any other woman. My mother thinks you have more."
"Your mother grudges me the little food I eat. How much money have you given me during the six years I have been your wife?"
"I have paid all your bills."
"What kind of bills?"
"All kinds."
"No. You have paid for a physician when I was sick--nothing else. I have bought little new clothing, and what I have bought I paid for."
"You did not require new clothing."
"When it was to renew and alter, I paid all expenses with my own money."
"_You! You have no money!_ All the money you have is mine. I have allowed you to use it for your personal expenses. Many husbands would not have done so."
"It was my money, Robert. I made it before I even knew your name."
"It was all my money the moment you were my wife."
"It is all gone now. I had to borrow a sovereign from Ducie."
"Good gracious! What an absurdity! What did you want with a sovereign?
You have credit in half-a-dozen shops."
"I wanted money, not credit. I cannot buy stamps, stationery, music, medicine, and many other things with credit. And the church wants cash always. I cannot pay church dues with credit. When I borrowed a sovereign from Ducie I wanted a prescription of Dr. Fleming"s made up."
"You have credit at Starkie"s."
"Starkie does not make up prescriptions. I had to send to Fraser"s and I have no credit at Fraser"s."
Then he threw a sovereign on the table and said: "Pay Ducie at once. I do not want her chattering all over Glasgow and Kendal."
"So you have decided to send Ducie away?"
"Yes."
"She is all that is left me of my old happy life. Oh, Robert, Robert!
have some pity on me."
"My mother and sister are giving up three servants. Surely you can relinquish one."
"It is Scot in the stable, who gives up his helper. It is Jepson in the house, it is McNab in the kitchen. None of these three servants affect your mother"s and sister"s comfort in the least. Ducie is everything to David and myself. She keeps our rooms clean and comfortable, brings my breakfast, waits on me when I am sick, walks out with David when I am not able to do so, and in many other ways makes things more bearable. I beg you, Robert, not to send her away."
"Then the other three servants must also remain."
"You are not poor, you only feel poor because you spent so much on Christina."
"Who was a wicked failure, and mother says you were the prompter of her sinful conduct."
"Me! I had no more to do with her final choice than your mother had. I did not even know the name of the man she married."
"But you talked sentiment, poetry, honor, and such stuff to her."
"Never. She would not have understood me if I had."
"What do you mean?"
"What I say, Christina turned sentiment, poetry, honor, and such stuff, into laughter. She saw only one side of any person or thing--the comic side. If she could mimic you, she partly understood you; if she could not mimic you, then you were uninteresting and unknowable. But Christina was as kind to me as she could be to any one. She is gone, and I have no friend left here."
"Am I not your friend?"
"You are my husband. I have had many friends, none of them were the least like you."