Part 7 (1/2)

Everything was going smoothly until Mr. Hardcastle said in the very quietest of tones--

”Of course you understand, Mrs. Wickham, that I shall require references. I am going to lay out a good deal of money on the house, and references are indispensable.”

”Of course,” answered mother, but she looked pale and nervous.

”What sort of references?” I asked.

”Tradesmen's references are what we like best,” was his reply; ”but your banker's will be all-sufficient--an interview with your banker with regard to your deposit will make all safe.”

Then mother turned paler than ever, and looked first at me and then at Mr. Hardcastle. After a pause she said slowly--

”My daughter and I would not undertake our present scheme if we had capital--we have not any.”

”Not any?” said Mr. Hardcastle, looking blank, ”and yet you propose to take a house with a rental of two hundred and eighty pounds a year.”

”We mean to pay the rent out of the profit we get from the boarders,”

I replied.

Mr. Hardcastle did not make use of an ugly word, but he raised his brows, looked fixedly at me for a moment, and then shook his head.

”I am sorry,” he said, rising; ”I would do a great deal to oblige you, for you are both most charming ladies, but I cannot let my house without references. If you, for instance, Mrs. Wickham, could get any one to guarantee the rent, I should be delighted to let you the house and put it in order, but not otherwise.”

He added a few more words, and then he and the agent, both of them looking very gloomy, went away.

”I shall hear from you doubtless on the subject of references,” said Mr. Hardcastle as he bowed himself out, ”and I will keep the offer open until Sat.u.r.day.”

This was Wednesday, we had three days to spare.

”Now, Westenra,” said my mother, ”the thing has come to a stop of itself. Providence has interfered, and I must honestly say I am glad.

From the first the scheme was mad, and as that nice, jovial looking Mr. Hardcastle will not let us the house without our having capital, and as we have no capital, there surely is an end to the matter. I have not the slightest doubt, West, that all the other landlords in Bloomsbury will be equally particular, therefore we must fall back upon our little cottage in----”

”No, mother,” I interrupted, ”no; I own that at the present moment I feel at my wits' end, but I have not yet come to the cottage in the country.”

I think there were tears in my eyes, for mother opened her arms wide.

”Kiss me,” she said.

I ran into her dear arms, and laid my head on her shoulder.

”Oh, you are the sweetest thing on earth,” I said, ”and it is because you are, and because I love you so pa.s.sionately, I will not let you degenerate. I will find my way through somehow.”

I left mother a moment later, and I will own it, went to my own lovely, lovely room, suitable for a girl who moved in the best society, and burst into tears. It was astonis.h.i.+ng what a sudden pa.s.sion I had taken, as my friends would say, to degrade myself; but this did not look like degradation in my eyes, it was just honest work. We wanted money, and we would earn it; we would go in debt to no man; we would earn money for ourselves. But then the thought came to me, ”Was my scheme too expensive? had I any right to saddle mother with such an enormous rent?” I had always considered myself a very fair arithmetician, and I now sat down and went carefully into accounts. I smile to this day as I think of myself seated at my little table in the big bay window of my bedroom, trying to make out with pencil and paper how I could keep 17 Graham Square going--I, a girl without capital, without knowledge, without any of the sort of experience which alone could aid me in a crisis of this sort.

I spent the rest of the day in very low spirits, for my accounts would not, however hard I tried, show any margin of profit.

The more difficulties came in my way, however, the more determined was I to overcome them. Presently I took a sheet of paper and wrote a few lines to Mr. Hardcastle. I knew his address, and wrote to him direct.

”Dear sir,” I said, ”will you oblige me by letting me know what capital my mother will require in order to become your tenant for 17 Graham Square.”

I signed this letter, adding a postscript, ”An early answer will oblige.”