Claudia reflected. She had not in the past cared much for her aunts"
household. The elderly maiden ladies were "the dearest creatures," she told herself; but they were not interesting. Aunt Jane was always engaged in knitting with red wool, any fragments of attention which could be given from that task being devoted to Molossus, the toy terrier, who almost dwelt in her lap. Aunt Ruth was equally devoted in the matter of embroidery, and in the watchful eye she kept upon the movements of Scipio, a Persian cat of lofty lineage and austere mien.
Their other interests were few, and were mainly centred upon their pensioners amongst the poor. Their friends were of their own generation.
Thus in the past Claudia had not felt any eager yearning for the house in St. John"s Wood, where the sisters dwelt at peace. But it was otherwise now, because Claudia had new designs upon London.
She confided to her mother her readiness to accept the recent invitation.
"Go, my dear, by all means," said the invalid; "I am sure you must want a change, especially after so many weeks of looking after me."
"Pinsett," said Claudia, salving her own conscience, "is so very careful and efficient."
"And so good," added Mrs. Haberton; "you may be sure I shall be safe in her hands."
For the moment Claudia was sensible of a little pang. Ought she to be so readily dispensed with? Were her services a quant.i.ty which could be neglected?
But, after all, this was nothing. She did not neglect her mother; that was out of the question.
[Sidenote: Up to Town]
So it was agreed that Claudia should go. Aunt Jane wrote a letter expressing her joy at the prospect, and Aunt Ruth added a postscript which was as long as the letter, confirming all that her sister had said.
So Claudia went up to town, and was received with open arms by her aunts.
The placid household at St. John"s Wood was all the brighter for Claudia"s presence; but she could not suffer herself to remain for more than a day or two in the light of an ordinary visitor.
"I came this time, you know," she early explained to Aunt Jane, "on a voyage of exploration."
"Of what, my dear?" said Aunt Jane, to whom great London was still a fearsome place, full of grievous peril.
"Of exploration, you know. I am going to look up a few old friends, and see how they live. They are working women, who----"
"But," said Aunt Jane, "do you think you ought to go amongst the poor alone?"
"Oh, they aren"t poor in that sense, auntie; they are just single women, old acquaintances of mine--schoolfellows indeed--who have to work for their living. I want to see them again, and find out how they get on, whether they have found their place in life, and are happy."
Aunt Jane was not wholly satisfied; but Claudia was not in her teens, nor was she a stranger to London. So the scheme was pa.s.sed, and all the more readily because Claudia explained that she did not mean to make her calls at random.
Her first voyage was to the flat in which Babette Irving and her friend lived. It was in Bloomsbury, and not in a pile of new buildings. In old-fashioned phraseology, Miss Irving and her friend would have been said to have taken "unfurnished apartments," into which they had moved their own possessions. It was a dull house in a dull side street.
Babette said that Lord Macaulay in his younger days was a familiar figure in their region, since Zachary Macaulay had lived in a house hard by. That was interesting, but did not compensate for the dinginess of the surroundings.
Babette herself looked older.
"Worry, my dear, worry," was the only explanation she offered of the fact. It seemed ample.
Her room was not decked out with all the prettiness Claudia, with a remembrance of other days, had looked for. Babette seemed to make the floor her waste-paper basket; and there was a shocking contempt for appearance in the way books and papers littered chairs and tables. Nor did Babette talk with enthusiasm of her work.
"Enjoy it?" she said, in answer to a question. "I sometimes wish I might never see pen, ink, and paper again. That is why I am overdone. But I am ashamed to say it; for I magnify my office as a working woman, and am thankful to be independent."
"But I thought literary people had such a pleasure in their gift," said Claudia.
"Very likely--those eminent persons who tell the interviewers they never write more than five hundred words a day. But I am only a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, so to speak."
"But the thought of being useful!"
"Yes, and the thought----but here is Susie."
Susie was the friend who taught singing. Claudia thought she had never seen a woman look more exhausted; but Claudia knew so little of life.
"You have had a long day, my dear," said Babette, as Susie threw herself into a chair; "it is your journey to the poles, isn"t it?"
"To the poles?" said Claudia.
"Yes; this is the day she has to be at a Hampstead school from 9.30 till 12.30, and at a Balham school from 2.30 till 4. It"s rather a drive to do it, since they are as far as the poles asunder."
"Still," said Claudia, "railway travelling must rest you."
"Not very much," said Susie, "when you travel third cla.s.s and the trains are crowded."
"But it must be so nice to feel that you are really filling a useful position in the world."
"I don"t know that I am," said Susie, rather wearily. "A good many of my pupils have no ear, and had far better be employed at something else."
"But your art!"
"I am afraid few of them think much about that, and what I have to do is to see that the parents are well enough pleased to keep their girls on at singing. I do my best for them; but one gets tired."
[Sidenote: Another Surprise]
Claudia did not reply. This seemed a sadly mercenary view of work, and a little shocked her. But then Claudia had not to earn her own living.
Claudia"s inquiries of Sarah Griffin were scarcely more cheerful. Sarah was at the shop from 8.30 until 7, and was unable, therefore, to see her friend during the day. Aunt Jane and Aunt Ruth insisted that Sarah should spend the evening at St. John"s Wood, and promised that she should leave early in the morning.
She came. Again Claudia marvelled at the change in her friend. Already she seemed ten years older than her age; her clothes, if neat, cried aloud of a narrow purse. She had lost a good deal of the brightness which once marked her, and had gathered instead a patient, worn look which had a pathos of its own.
Sarah did not announce her poverty, but under the sympathetic hands of Aunt Ruth and Aunt Jane she in time poured out the history of her daily life.
She was thankful to be in work, even though it was poorly paid. When first in search of occupation, she had spent three weary weeks in going from one house of business to another. In some she was treated courteously, in a few kindly, in many coa.r.s.ely, in some insultingly. But that was nothing; Sarah knew of girls, far more tenderly reared than she had been, whose experiences had been even sadder.
But Claudia hoped that now Sarah really was at work she was comfortable.
Sarah smiled a little wintry smile. Yes, she was comfortable, and very thankful to be at work.
Aunt Jane with many apologies wanted more detail.
Then it appeared that Sarah was living on 15s. a week. She lived at a home for young women in business; she fed chiefly on bread and b.u.t.ter.