The Loving Spirit (42 page)

Grandmamma sniffed.

‘Nonsense, nonsense,’ she muttered, ‘I don’t approve of all this running about at all.’

Bertha snapped a piece of cotton in two. She was embroidering a camisole.

‘I think it would be good for Jennifer if she made some really nice friends,’ she announced. ‘I wish you’d kept on with that Marshall girl, dear, she might have asked you to stay. I believe they had quite a place in Herefordshire.’

‘What’s that?’ asked Grandmamma, peevishly, ‘what’s that? I can’t hear what you say, you mumble so.’

‘I said it’s a pity Jennifer hasn’t some nice friends who would ask her to stay,’ shouted Bertha.

‘What nonsense! Isn’t the child happy here? Why should she wish to go tearing off somewhere? She’s only just home from Felixstowe.There’s too much going away these days altogether. ’

‘Still, Mamma, she has no young companions she seems to care about. Of course I had Edith and May in the old days, and anyway we always found plenty to do. No, it’s a great pity you haven’t more friends, Jenny.’

‘Don’t worry, I’m all right,’ said Jennifer scowling, hating to be discussed. ‘I don’t want any friends. I hate girls, I always have.’

‘What does she say, Bertha? Why doesn’t she speak up so that I can hear?’ Grandmamma stamped the floor with her stick.

‘Jenny says she doesn’t care for girls, Mamma, that was all.’

‘Doesn’t care for girls? What a stupid thing to say. What does she mean, I should like to know.’

‘Yes, tell us, Jenny.You are always so reticent in your opinions. ’

‘Oh! nothing, Mother. I don’t know why exactly. They’re rather fools I think, at least they all were at school. Always giggling and whispering. I like people who either do a thing openly or keep quiet about it.’

‘Do a thing openly, what do you mean, child?’ Grandmamma pricked up her ears suspiciously. ‘You shouldn’t be so mysterious in your conversation. Explain yourself.’

‘Only an expression, Grandmamma. It doesn’t mean anything. It would take me months to give you all my reasons for disliking girls.’

‘Well, Jenny,’ said Bertha cheerfully, ‘at least you don’t know many boys to compare them with, but I dare say you will as you grow older. I should like you to meet some really nice young men - after all, you are sure to marry one day.’

‘I don’t want to marry.’

‘Oh! every girl says that at your age, I’m sure I did myself. You wait and see. It’s just a pretence, being shy of men.’

‘Shy?’ Jennifer smiled. ‘I’m not shy of men, I like them. Don’t know many, but I see them walking about the street. They’re more human than women, same as dogs.’

‘What’s that? What’s that? What did she say?’

‘Jennifer doesn’t mind men, Mamma. She says they’re like dogs, she sees them in the street.’

‘She sees what? How perfectly disgusting - didn’t she call a policeman?’

‘No, Grandmamma, you didn’t hear properly. I said men were human.’

‘Well, everybody knows that, child, but it’s no excuse for filthy behaviour. So that’s why you like to go about London alone. Bertha, I don’t approve of this at all.’

‘It’s all right, Mamma. Jennifer was joking.’

‘H’mph! Joking, don’t see any joke. The child knows too much, that’s the trouble.’

Bertha changed the conversation.

‘What are your plans for the week, Jenny?’

‘Haven’t got any. I thought of walking along the Embankment tomorrow, and seeing if there were any ships.’

‘What a funny thing to want to do.’

‘I like it.’

‘Don’t get spoken to by any roughs.’

‘Nobody ever speaks to me, I wish they would.’

‘What’s that? The child wants to be assaulted by roughs? Bertha, I forbid Jennifer to go off on this expedition.’

‘Very well, Mamma. Jennifer, you heard what Grandmamma says.’

‘Yes. I heard.’

‘Still, it’s a pity to spoil your day. I was thinking of doing some shopping tomorrow afternoon.You can come with me and we’ll have tea afterwards at Whiteleys.’

To their surprise Jennifer burst out laughing and walked from the room.

‘Oh, dear! I hope Jenny isn’t going to be difficult,’ said Bertha thoughtfully.

Grandmamma sniffed, and settled herself in her chair. ‘She needs watching, in my opinion; I don’t like the look in her eye. The child’s a dark horse.’

So they dismissed her from their minds.

Jennifer, who believed in fair play, stood exactly two months of idleness at the boarding-house, and then decided she could bear no more. It was absurd to say her mother needed her help in running the place, on the contrary, she would have been fussed at interference.

Bertha realized that the girl had nothing to do and was bored, but she seemed to think it was the fault of her character and could not be changed. Poor Christopher had been the same as a young man. Always restless and dissatisfied. It was most unfortunate that Jennifer should have inherited this fault. Bertha did not see what could be done about it. She herself had been so very different as a girl. Still, there it was; such a pity Jennifer had no hobbies to make some sort of amusement. Painting or music now. However she was very young, perhaps she would meet some really nice man with plenty of money . . .

She talked the matter over with Grandmamma, and they both agreed that this was the only thing for Jennifer. ‘That’s why I’m so anxious for her to make friends,’ argued Bertha.

‘She is so obstinate, and will not go out of her way to make herself agreeable. That Marshall girl at school had a lovely place in the country, and would have introduced her to no end of people. She might even have hunted.’

‘Hunted? Nonsense, nonsense. No girl secures a husband by hunting for one. Jennifer is only too ready to make herself cheap as it is.’

‘No, Mamma dear, you misunderstand. I mean hunting on horseback, after foxes you know.’

‘Oh! well, why don’t you say what you mean? Hunting indeed, what nonsense.’

‘I am afraid Jenny has rather an unfortunate manner with strangers,’ continued Bertha. ‘She will give people the impression she is laughing at them. Even with people she knows it’s the same. All the boarders here, for instance. I’m sure everyone is very nice to her, but she has such a quick tongue. I believe she would frighten off any man who wished to make an impression.’

‘Humph! that’s all a pose. Still waters run deep. She seemed on very familiar terms with Mr Tupton the other evening. I was watching her.’

‘Oh! Mamma, they were only discussing horse-breeding. Quite harmless.’

‘Harmless? Glad you think so. I call it a decidedly intimate subject to be discussed between two people of the opposite sex. There’s no knowing what might be said. Men are always ready to twist words about and cause confusion.’

‘I hardly think Horace Tupton would do that, Mamma. He is very serious-minded, and must be well over fifty.’

‘How ignorant you are, Bertha. That’s just the age men become foolish with young girls. I shall never forget a most unpleasant occurrence that happened to me years ago in a railway carriage, and I was married too. However, that is not the point. The point is, I wouldn’t trust Jennifer at all. She may have introduced this horse-breeding subject and led Mr Tupton to believe heaven knows what.’

‘Oh! dear, so you really think so? I shall certainly tell her to be more careful in the future.’

‘If we want to see Jennifer married, Bertha, I must confess she is not setting about it in the right way. No nice-mannered man would dream of proposing to a girl who showed such a familiarity with the facts of life. He would be repulsed at once. He might suspect almost anything. Horse-breeding, indeed, what nonsense.’

At that moment Jennifer walked into the room. She was smiling, and carrying her hat in her hand.

‘Hullo!’ she said, ‘I’ve got a job.’

Bertha started from her chair in astonishment.

‘Jenny - what on earth do you mean?’

‘She’s got what, she’s got what? I can’t hear a word you say.’ Grandmamma leaned forward angrily, her chin wobbling with emotion.

‘I’ve got a job,’ repeated Jennifer. ‘I start tomorrow morning at nine o’clock.’ She balanced herself on the arm of a chair and watched their faces.

‘I don’t think it’s at all nice of you,’ said Bertha immediately. ‘And I simply don’t understand your attitude. To go off calmly on your own and arrange your plans as though you were twenty-one and independent, while Grandmamma and I sit here worrying over you and wondering what’s to be done, and . . .’

‘Yes, but Mother, listen a minute. You and Grandmamma sit here and worry but you don’t do anything. After all, why should you? So I just went out and did it for you.’

‘But there’s no need for it,’ persisted her mother. ‘Grandmamma sees you have everything you want, I’m sure. Why, that pretty hat you have, that was new three weeks ago. The whole thing reflects on me, it looks as though I didn’t want you here in the daytime. Jennifer, you have hurt me very much.’

‘Mother, please don’t make a scene. There’s nothing scandalous in getting a job surely. Why, everybody does something nowadays. Quite rich girls who live on big allowances - they’re all doing it. I know it wasn’t considered the thing years ago, but you said the other day the war had changed everything.’

‘What does she say, Bertha?’

‘Oh! dear, oh! dear. Jennifer says although it was considered shocking years ago quite rich girls think nothing of doing it now. She says everybody does it.’

‘Doing it? Doing what? I never heard of such a thing! What a wicked, immoral statement. Can’t they wait until they are married, good gracious, why I ...’

‘No, no, Mamma. Jennifer says all girls have jobs since the war. I don’t know what to think about it. If only poor Christopher was alive - I wonder what he would have to say.’

‘Daddy would be pleased,’ said Jennifer hastily. ‘I know he would, so it’s no use shaking your head like that, Mother. And anyway, I’ve got the job, and I’m going tomorrow morning at nine o’clock, so why must we go on talking it over. Nothing you say will make me change my mind.’

‘You are a hard, obstinate girl, Jenny. I had no idea you would grow up so callous to my wishes. I wish I knew where you get that horrid, wilful streak from - your daddy was never like it, nor the two boys. I shall begin to think you take after your cruel, disagreeable grandfather.’

‘Who’s talking about her grandfather?’

‘Not Papa, dear, I was referring to poor Christopher’s old father who treated us all so shamefully.’

Jennifer slid off the arm of her chair. ‘I don’t seem very popular so I’ll go upstairs.’

‘Wait, Jenny, you haven’t told us what it is yet, this precious job.’

‘Yes, Jennifer. Come now and confess, unless it’s something you are too ashamed to admit.’

‘Oh! it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m going to be an assistant to a vet - a sort of kennel maid.’

There was a moment’s horrified silence. Jennifer slipped quietly from the room.

‘A kennel maid,’ Bertha gazed helplessly at her mother.‘Can you imagine anything more appalling? She might pick up fleas or anything. Messing about all day with unhealthy animals. I have never been so worried in my life. Really, sometimes I wonder if I ought to take Jennifer to see a doctor, she may be the smallest bit peculiar. Oh! Mamma, what are we going to do about this business?’

‘Peculiar? What nonsense, of course she isn’t peculiar. I’m wondering what sort of aged man he is, this vet of hers . . .’

The following day Jennifer, in a white overall, was helping a sad-faced middle-aged man, also dressed in a white coat, while he made an injection in the side of a pitiful screaming cat that had been run over two minutes before.The man asked her if she could stand it.

‘Yes,’ said Jennifer, clenching her teeth.

She put out her arms for the whimpering, bleeding cat, and held it close to her, with calm, accustomed hands.

 

 

For eight months Jennifer was an assistant to Mr Macleugh, the veterinary surgeon in Baker Street, but at the end of that time he was obliged to give up the work because of his health.

Her mother and grandmother realized by now that it was hopeless to argue with her, she went her own way. It took them many weeks before they became used to her job as kennel maid.

When Jennifer’s career as a kennel maid came to an end she looked about her for something else. She returned home one day with the news that she was selling stockings behind the counter at the Army and Navy Stores. Bertha looked at her painfully. ‘Sometimes I think you behave like this only to hurt my feelings. After your splendid education, to go and sell stockings in a shop—’

‘I never learnt a thing at school,’ said Jennifer, ‘except that it didn’t pay to tell tales. I can’t remember the names of the rivers in China or the exports of India, or how to parse a sentence, or what was the Reform Bill. Since I’ve left, I’ve learnt what to do if an animal is in pain, which is surely more use than all the rest put together.’

‘But where is all this leading to? That is what Grandmamma and I want to know. I dare say it is very nice to be useful with animals, but really - for a girl with your upbringing, to be selling stockings behind a counter.’

‘Daddy used to be a shopwalker in the old days when you lived in London, you told me so once.’

‘That’s rather different.’

‘How?’

‘Your poor Daddy started life in rather humble circumstances, you know that perfectly well. You cannot remember your relatives at Plyn, but they were all rather - well - rough country people. I felt it a great deal at first. Your Daddy was superior to them in every way, that was why he ran away from sea. But as a young man he had very little money, and he was obliged to better himself as best he could. Unfortunately he was never very strong. Besides, there were not the opportunities open for young people in his day. It’s quite another matter for you.You’ve been brought up as a lady, and you do nothing but throw your chances away. Look at the people you must mix with in this shop.’