The War had made a deep wound, nay, far more than one
wound, in the spiritual body politic of Old Place. And it was of a very
material thing that Betty Tosswill thought first, and most painfully,
this morning. This was the fact that from having been in easy
circumstances they were now very poor.
When Godfrey Radmore had gone out of their lives there had been a great,
perhaps even then a false, air of prosperity over them all. John Tosswill
was a man who had always made bad investments; but in that far-off time,
"before the War," living was so cheap, wages were so low, the children
were all still so young, that he and Janet had managed very well.
Only Betty knew the scrimping and the saving Jack, at Oxford, and Tom, at
Winchester, now entailed on the part of those who lived at Old Place.
Why, she herself counted every penny with anxious care, and the stupid,
kindly folk who asked, just a trifle censoriously, why she wasn't "doing
something," now that "every career is open to a girl, especially to one
who did so well in the War," would perhaps have felt a little ashamed had
they discovered that she was housemaid, parlourmaid, often cook, to a
large and not always easily pleased family.
Pages:
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86