"Father--can"t you guess, Kitty?--father has gone away. There is some other woman."
"No?" gasped Kitty. "Ha! ha! ha! ha!" and she shook with long peals of silvery laughter. "Well, of all the funny things! Ha! ha! ha!"
"Funny!" and Salvina looked at her sternly.
"What, don"t you see the humour of it? Father turning into the hero of a novelette. Romance and red herrings! Pa.s.sion and potatoes! Ha! ha!
ha!"
"If you had seen the havoc it wrought, you wouldn"t have had the heart to laugh."
"Oh well, mother was crying. That I understand. But that"s nothing new for her. She"d cry just as much if he were there. The average rainfall is--how many inches?"
Salvina"s face was stern and white. "A mother"s tears are sacred," she said in low but firm protest.
"Oh, dear me, Sally, I always forget you have no sense of humour.
Well, what are you going to do about it?" and her own sense of humour continued to twitch and dimple the corners of her pretty mouth.
"I told you. We cannot afford to keep up the house--we must go back to apartments in Spitalfields."
Instantly Kitty"s face grew as serious as Salvina"s. "Oh, nonsense!"
she said instinctively. The thought of her family returning to the discarded sh.e.l.l of apartments was humiliating; her own personality seemed being dragged back.
"We can"t pay the rent. We must give a quarter"s notice at once."
"Absurd! You"ll only save a few shillings a week. Why can"t you let apartments yourselves? At least you would preserve a decent appearance."
"Is it worth while having the responsibility of the rent? There"s only mother and I--we shan"t need a house."
"But there"s Lazarus!"
"He"ll have a place of his own. He"ll marry before our notice expires."
"That same Jonas girl?"
"Yes."
"Ridiculous. Small tradespeople, and dreadfully common, all the lot. I thought he"d got over his pa.s.sion for that bold black creature who"s been seen licking ice-cream out of a street-gla.s.s. To connect us with that family! Men are so selfish. But I still don"t see why you can"t remain as you are--let your drawing-room, say, furnished."
"But it isn"t furnished."
"Not furnished. Why, I"ve sat on the couch myself."
"Yes," said Salvina, a faint smile tempering her deadly gravity. "You are the only person who has ever done that. But there"s no couch now.
Father smuggled all the furniture away in a van."
Again Kitty"s silver laughter rang out unquenchably.
"And you don"t call that funny! Eloped with the chairs! I call it killing."
"Yes, for mother," said Salvina.
"Pooh! She"ll outlive all of us. I wish you were as sure of getting the furniture back. She"s not a bad mother, as mothers go, but you take her too seriously."
"But, Kitty, consider the disgrace!"
"The disgrace of having a wicked parent! I"ve endured for years the disgrace of having a poor one--and that"s worse. My people--the Samuelsons, I mean--will never even hear of the pater"s escapade--gossip keeps strictly to its station. And even if they do, they know already my family"s under a cloud, and they have learned to accept me for myself."
"Well, I am glad you don"t mind," said Salvina, half-relieved, half-shocked.
"I mind, if it makes you uncomfortable, you dear, silly Sally."
"Oh, don"t worry about me. I think I"ll go back to mother, now."
"Nonsense, why, we haven"t begun to talk yet. Have another cup of tea.
No? How"s old Miss What"s-a-name, your head-mistress? Any more frozen little kittens?"
"She"s very kind, really. I"m sorry I told you about the kitten. She let me go home early on Friday."
"Why? To track the van?"
"No; I wasn"t very well."
"Poor Sally!" and Kitty hugged her again. "I daresay you were more upset than mother."
Tears came into Salvina"s eyes at her sister"s affectionateness. "Oh, no; but please don"t talk about it any more. Father is dead to us now."
"Then we must speak well of him."
Salvina shuddered. "He is a wicked, heartless man, and mother and I never wish to see his face again."
A cloud darkened Kitty"s blonde brow.
"Yes, but she isn"t going to marry another man, I hope."
"How can she?" said Salvina. "I wouldn"t let her make any public scandal."
"But aren"t there funny laws in our religion--_Get_ and things like that--which dispense with the English courts."
"I believe there are--I read about something of the kind in a novel--oh, yes! and father did offer mother _Get_ before he went off, so I suppose he considers his conscience clear."
"Well, I rely upon you, Sally, to see that she doesn"t marry or complicate things more. We don"t want two wicked parents."
"Of course not. But I am sure she doesn"t dream of any new complications. You don"t do her justice, Kitty. She"s just broken-hearted; a perpetual widow, with worse than her husband"s death to lament."
"Yes--her lost furniture."
"Oh, Kitty, do realize what it means."