Part 14 (2/2)
”Is he likely to turn up?” Vane asked. ”It's ever so long since I've seen him.”
”I'm afraid not. In fact, Gerald's rather under a cloud just now. I may as well tell you this, because you are sure to hear of it sooner or later. He has been extravagant and, so he a.s.sures us, extraordinarily unlucky.”
”Stocks?” suggested Vane. He was acquainted with some of the family tendencies.
Evelyn hesitated a moment.
”That would more readily have been forgiven him. I believe he has speculated on the turf as well.”
Vane was surprised. He understood that Gerald Chisholm was a barrister, and betting on the turf was not an amus.e.m.e.nt he would have a.s.sociated with that profession.
”I must run up and see him by and by,” he said thoughtfully.
Evelyn felt sorry she had spoken. Gerald needed help, which his father was not in a position to offer. Evelyn was not censorious of other people's faults, but it was impossible to be blind to some aspects of her brother's character, and she would have preferred that Vane should not meet Gerald while the latter was embarra.s.sed by financial difficulties.
She abruptly changed the subject.
”Several of the things you have told me about your life in Canada interest me. It must have been bracing to feel that you depended upon your own efforts and stood on your own feet, free from the hampering customs that are common here.”
”The position has its disadvantages. You have no family influence behind you--nothing to fall back on. If you can't make good your footing, you must go down. It's curious that just before I came over here, a lady I met in Vancouver expressed an opinion very much like yours. She said it must be pleasant to feel that one is, to some extent at least, master of one's fate.”
”Then she merely explained my meaning more clearly than I have done.”
”One could have imagined that she had everything she could reasonably wish for. If I'm not transgressing, so have you. It's strange you should both harbor the same idea.”
Evelyn smiled.
”I don't think it's uncommon among young women nowadays. There's a grandeur in the thought that one's fate lies in the hands of the high unseen Powers; but to allow one's life to be molded by the prejudices and preconceptions of one's--neighbors is a different matter. Besides, if unrest and human striving were sent, was it only that they should be repressed?”
Vane sat silent a moment or two. He had noticed the brief pause and fancied that she had changed one of the words that followed it. He did not think that it was the opinions of her neighbors against which she chafed most.
”It's something that I've never experienced,” he replied at length. ”In a general way, I've done what I wanted.”
”Which is a privilege that is denied us.”
Evelyn spoke without bitterness.
”What do women who are left to their own resources do in western Canada?”
she asked presently.
”Some of them marry; I suppose that's the most natural thing,” answered Vane, with an air of reflection that amused her. ”Anyway, they have plenty of opportunities. There's a preponderating number of unattached young men in the newly opened parts of the Dominion.”
”Things are different here; or perhaps we require more than they do across the Atlantic. What becomes of the others?”
”They are waitresses in the hotels; they learn stenography and typewriting, and go into offices and stores.”
”And earn just enough to live upon meagerly? If their wages are high, they must pay out more. That follows, doesn't it?”
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