Part 48 (1/2)
Her clothes depended upon occasional gifts from friends.
Claudia began to condemn the world for its hardness.
”But I am not clever,” said Sarah; ”I can do nothing in particular, and there are so many of us wanting work.”
”And do all these people really need it?”
”Yes; and we all think it hard when girls come and, for the mere pleasure of doing something, take such work at a lower wage than those can take who must live.”
”But look at me,” said Claudia; ”I don't want the money, but I want the occupation; I want to feel I have some definite duties, and some place of my own in the world.”
Sarah looked a little puzzled. Then she said, ”Perhaps Mrs. Warwick could help you.”
”Who is Mrs. Warwick?”
”Mrs. Warwick is the presiding genius of a ladies' club to which some of my friends go. I daresay one of them will be very glad to take us there.”
So they agreed to go. Claudia felt, it must be owned, a little disappointed at what she had heard from her friends, but was inclined to believe that between the old life at home and the drudgery for the bare means of existence there still lay many things which she could do. She revolved the subject in the course of a morning walk on the day they were to visit the club, and returned to the shelter of her aunts' home with something of her old confidence restored.
Despite their goodness--Claudia could not question that--how poor, she thought, looked their simple ways! Aunt Jane sat, as aforetime, at one side of the fireplace, Aunt Ruth at the other. Aunt Jane was knitting with red wool, as she had always knitted since Claudia had known her.
Aunt Ruth, with an equal devotion to habit, was working her way through a piece of embroidery. Molossus, the toy terrier, was asleep in Aunt Jane's lap; Scipio reposed luxuriously at Aunt Ruth's feet.
[Sidenote: Mild Excitement]
It was a peaceful scene; yet it had its mild excitements. The two aunts began at once to explain.
”We are so glad you are come in,” said Aunt Jane.
”Because old Rooker has been,” said Aunt Ruth.
”And with such good news! He has heard from his boy----”
”His boy, you know, who ran away,” continued Aunt Ruth.
”He is coming home in a month or two, just to see his father, and is then going back again----”
”Back again to America, you know----”
”Where he is doing well----”
”And he sends his father five pounds----”
”And now the old man says he will not need our half-a-crown a week any longer----”
”So we can give it to old Mrs. Wimple, his neighbour----”
”A great sufferer, you know, and oh, so patient.”
”Really!” said Claudia, a little confused by this antiphonal kind of narrative.
”Yes,” continued Aunt Jane, ”and I see a letter has come in for you--from home, I think. So this has been quite an eventful morning.”