Heartsease; Or, The Brother's Wife. Yonge Charlotte Mary
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the upshot of it all is, that we are to have a house somewhere in Belgravia,’ he began.
‘That is near Lord Martindale’s London house, is it not?’
‘Yes; you will be in the way of all that is going on.’
‘Do we go there next month?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Oh! I am glad.’
‘Are you? I thought you liked being here.’
‘Yes, yes, of course, that I do; but it will be so pleasant to be at home, and to have you all to myself.’
She repented the next moment, as if it had been a complaint; but he was gratified, and called her a little monopolist.
‘Oh, I don’t mean to be troublesome to you,’ said she, earnestly; ‘I shall have so much more to do in our own house, that I shall not miss you so much when you are out; besides, we can have Annette to stay with us.’
‘We’ll see about that. But look here,’ laying a paper with some figures before her; ‘that’s all my father leaves me for you to keep house with. I put it into your hands, and you must do the best you can with it.’
‘You don t mean to put all that into my hands!’ exclaimed Violet in alarm. ‘What a sum!’
‘You won’t think so by the end of the year; but mind, this must do; it will be of no use to come to me for more.’
‘Then is it little?’ asked Violet.
‘See what you think of it by and by; you won’t find it such an easy thing to make both ends meet.’
‘I will write and ask mamma to tell me how to manage.’
‘Indeed,’ said Arthur, with sharpness such as she had never seen in him before, ‘I beg you will not. I won’t have my affairs the town talk of Wrangerton.’ But seeing her look frightened, and ready to cry, he softened instantly, and said, affectionately, ‘No, no, Violet, we must keep our concerns to ourselves. I don’t want to serve for the entertainment of Matilda’s particular friends.’
‘Mamma wouldn’t tell—’
‘I’ll trust no house of seven women.’
‘But how am I to know how to manage?’
‘Never mind; you’ll get on. It comes as naturally to women as if it was shooting or fishing.’
‘I wonder how I shall begin! I don’t know anything.’
‘Buy a cookery book.’
‘Aunt Moss gave me one; I didn’t mean that. But, oh, dear, there’s the hiring of servants, and buying things!’
‘Don’t ask me: it is woman’s work, and always to be done behind the scenes. If there’s a thing I mortally hate, it is those housekeeper bodies who go about talking of their good cooks.’
Violet was silenced, but after much meditation she humbly begged for answers to one or two questions. ‘Was she to pay the servants’ wages out of this?’
‘Your maids—of course.’
‘And how many are we to have?’
‘As many as will do the work.’
‘A cook and housemaid—I wonder if that would be enough?’
‘Don’t ask me, that’s all’
‘I know you don’t like to be teased,’ she said, submissively; ‘but one or two things I do want to know. Is James to be in the house?’
‘Why, yes; he is a handy fellow. We will have him down for Simmonds to give him some training.’
‘Then ought we to have two maids or three?’
He held up his hands, and escaped.
That morning John, happening to come into the drawing-room, found Violet disconsolately covering a sheet of paper with figures.
‘Abstruse calculations?’ said he.
‘Yes, very,’ said she, sighing, with the mystified face of a child losing its way in a long sum.
He did not like to leave her in such evident difficulties, and said, with a smile, ‘Your budget? Are you good at arithmetic?’
‘I can do the sums, if that was all, but I don’t know what to set out from, or anything about it. Mamma said she could not think how I should keep house.’
‘She would be the best person to give you counsel, I should think.’
‘Yes, but—’ and she looked down, struggling with tears, ‘I must not write to ask her.’
‘How so!’
‘Arthur says the Wrangerton people would gossip, and I should not like that,’ said she; ‘only it is very hard to make out for myself, and those things tease Arthur.’
‘They are not much in his line,’ said John; ‘I don’t know,’ he added, hesitating, ‘whether it would be of any use to you to talk it over with me. There was a time when I considered the management of such an income; and though it never came to practice, mine may be better than no notions at all.’
‘Oh, thank you!’ said Violet, eagerly; then, pausing, she said, with a sweet embarrassment, ‘only—you can’t like it.’
‘Thank you,’ replied he, with kind earnestness; ‘I should like to be of use to you.’
‘It is just what I want. I am sure Arthur would like me to do it. You see this is what he gives me, and I am to buy everything out of it.’
‘The best plan,’ said John; ‘it never answers to be always applying for money.’
‘No,’ said Violet, thoughtfully, as she recollected certain home scenes, and then was angry with herself for fancying Arthur could wear such looks as those which all the house dreaded.
Meanwhile John had perceived how differently Arthur had apportioned the income from what his own intentions had been. He had great doubts of the possibility of her well-doing, but he kept them to himself. He advised her to consider her items, and soon saw she was more bewildered than helpless. He knew no more than Arthur on the knotty point of the number of maids, but he was able to pronounce her plan sensible, and her eyes brightened, as she spoke of a housemaid of mamma’s who wanted to better herself, and get out of the way of the little ones, ‘who were always racketing.’
‘And now,’ said John, ‘we passed over one important question—or is that settled otherwise?—your own pocket-money!’
‘Oh! I have plenty. Arthur gave me fifty pounds when we went through London, and I have twelve left.’
‘But for the future! Is it included here?’
‘I should think so. Oh!’ shocked at the sum he set down, ‘a quarter of that would be enough for my dress.’
‘I don’t think Miss Standaloft would say so,’ said John, smiling.
‘But Arthur said we must economize, and I promised to be as little expense as possible. Please let me write down half that.’
‘No, no,’ said John, retaining the pencil, ‘not with my consent. Leave yourself the power of giving. Besides, this is to cover all the sundries you cannot charge as household expenses. Now let me mark off another hundred for casualties, and here is what you will have for the year. Now divide.’
‘Surely, two people and three servants can’t eat all that in one week.’
‘Fires, candles,’ said John, amused, but poor Violet was quite overpowered.
‘Oh, dear! how many things I never thought of! Mamma said I was too young! These coals. Can you tell me anything about them?’
‘I am afraid not. You are getting beyond me. If you wanted to know the cost of lodgings in Italy or the south of France, I could help you; but, after all, experience