New Grub Street, George Gissing [10 best books of all time TXT] 📗

at the funeral? Don’t be so surly, Jack; tell us all about it. I’m sure if anyone has cause to be ill-tempered it’s poor me.”

Thus they talked, amid the rattle of the cab-wheels. By when they reached home silence had fallen upon them, and each one was sufficiently occupied with private thoughts.

Mrs. Yule’s servants had a terrible time of it for the next few days. Too affectionate to turn her ill-temper against John and Amy, she relieved herself by severity to the domestic slaves, as an English matron is of course justified in doing. Her daughter’s position caused her even more concern than before; she constantly lamented to herself: “Oh, why didn’t he die before she was married!”⁠—in which case Amy would never have dreamt of wedding a penniless author. Amy declined to discuss the new aspect of things until twenty-four hours after John’s return; then she said:

“I shall do nothing whatever until the money is paid to me. And what I shall do then I don’t know.”

“You are sure to hear from Edwin,” opined Mrs. Yule.

“I think not. He isn’t the kind of man to behave in that way.”

“Then I suppose you are bound to take the first step?”

“That I shall never do.”

She said so, but the sudden happiness of finding herself wealthy was not without its softening effect on Amy’s feelings. Generous impulses alternated with moods of discontent. The thought of her husband in his squalid lodgings tempted her to forget injuries and disillusions, and to play the part of a generous wife. It would be possible now for them to go abroad and spend a year or two in healthful travel; the result in Reardon’s case might be wonderful. He might recover all the energy of his imagination, and resume his literary career from the point he had reached at the time of his marriage.

On the other hand, was it not more likely that he would lapse into a life of scholarly self-indulgence, such as he had often told her was his ideal? In that event, what tedium and regret lay before her! Ten thousand pounds sounded well, but what did it represent in reality? A poor four hundred a year, perhaps; mere decency of obscure existence, unless her husband could glorify it by winning fame. If he did nothing, she would be the wife of a man who had failed in literature. She would not be able to take a place in society. Life would be supported without struggle; nothing more to be hoped.

This view of the future possessed her strongly when, on the second day, she went to communicate her news to Mrs. Carter. This amiable lady had now become what she always desired to be, Amy’s intimate friend; they saw each other very frequently, and conversed of most things with much frankness. It was between eleven and twelve in the morning when Amy paid her visit, and she found Mrs. Carter on the point of going out.

“I was coming to see you,” cried Edith. “Why haven’t you let me know of what has happened?”

“You have heard, I suppose?”

“Albert heard from your brother.”

“I supposed he would. And I haven’t felt in the mood for talking about it, even with you.”

They went into Mrs. Carter’s boudoir, a tiny room full of such pretty things as can be purchased nowadays by anyone who has a few shillings to spare, and tolerable taste either of their own or at secondhand. Had she been left to her instincts, Edith would have surrounded herself with objects representing a much earlier stage of artistic development; but she was quick to imitate what fashion declared becoming. Her husband regarded her as a remarkable authority in all matters of personal or domestic ornamentation.

“And what are you going to do?” she inquired, examining Amy from head to foot, as if she thought that the inheritance of so substantial a sum must have produced visible changes in her friend.

“I am going to do nothing.”

“But surely you’re not in low spirits?”

“What have I to rejoice about?”

They talked for a while before Amy brought herself to utter what she was thinking.

“Isn’t it a most ridiculous thing that married people who both wish to separate can’t do so and be quite free again?”

“I suppose it would lead to all sorts of troubles⁠—don’t you think?”

“So people say about every new step in civilisation. What would have been thought twenty years ago of a proposal to make all married women independent of their husbands in money matters? All sorts of absurd dangers were foreseen, no doubt. And it’s the same now about divorce. In America people can get divorced if they don’t suit each other⁠—at all events in some of the States⁠—and does any harm come of it? Just the opposite I should think.”

Edith mused. Such speculations were daring, but she had grown accustomed to think of Amy as an “advanced” woman, and liked to imitate her in this respect.

“It does seem reasonable,” she murmured.

“The law ought to encourage such separations, instead of forbidding them,” Amy pursued. “If a husband and wife find that they have made a mistake, what useless cruelty it is to condemn them to suffer the consequences for the whole of their lives!”

“I suppose it’s to make people careful,” said Edith, with a laugh.

“If so, we know that it has always failed, and always will fail; so the sooner such a profitless law is altered the better. Isn’t there some society for getting that kind of reform? I would subscribe fifty pounds a year to help it. Wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, if I had it to spare,” replied the other.

Then they both laughed, but Edith the more naturally.

“Not on my own account, you know,” she added.

“It’s because women who are happily married can’t and won’t understand the position of those who are not that there’s so much difficulty in reforming marriage laws.”

“But I understand you, Amy, and I grieve about you. What you are to do I can’t think.”

“Oh, it’s easy to see what I shall do. Of course I have no choice