The Career of Katherine Bush

ountry business bent; and having matured her plans, and having set fresh schemes in train, she thought she might as well communicate them to the one sister who mattered to her. Matilda loved an

am tired of it. I am absolutely tired of it, so there! I am tired of Liv and Dev-tired of the hateful old click of the machine

nd Dev's as good a berth as you'd get-thirty bob a week, and a whole holiday on Saturday-to say nothing of

another class'? Why, aren't we as go

down her empty cup

it. There are lots and lots of classes above us-they mayn't be any cleverer-indeed

t personall

as bothering after those evening lectures and French classes-instead of coming with Glad and Bert and me to the cinema, like a decent Christian-it was a low sort

slightest influence upon Katherine from the moment of their mother's death, years before, when she had taken her place as head of the orphaned household. Katherine had always been odd. She had a vile temper as a child, and was silent and morose, and at constant war with that bright boy Bert, loved of the other sisters: Matild

any good in my considering myself a young lady, because at my present stage anyone who really

da br

y, Mabel Cawber always says that we are the most refined family o

never done a stroke of work in her life?" Katheri

ct lady," she aff

say, but I strongly feel that she is not. You see, Tild, you get your ideas of things from the trash you read-and from the ridiculous nonsen

l equal!" broke in M

e gentlemen I see through the glass screen! They have all got eyes and noses and legs and arms in comm

I!" indi

ifferent environment and a wider point of view-and it is immensely in the little customs and manners

unmollified and

llows than our brothers in no family in England, and I expect

became con

had a real sharp last week, and to look at and to hear him talk he was a perfect gentleman, with re

e!" snort

and touchy; they are too sure of themselves and do not pretend anything, they are quite natural and you take them as they are. They don't do one thing at home at ease, and anoth

y a foreman in the Bindon Gas Works!

her sister was b

e she would-th

ite rig

ht out any problem for herself in her life-Matilda who had not the privilege of knowing any attractive Lord Algys!-and

dity counts just as it does in animals, of course. So why, if a man's father and grandfather, and much further back still, have been gentlemen commanding

e felt resentful; but words did

forebears, or you have to have intelligence enough to make yourself acquire the outward signs of

cup of cocoa-she disliked

tell them we were ladies and gentlemen, because we are not. Lord Al-oh! any lord who comes to our office-does not have to say he is an aristocrat; you can see it for yourself in a minute by his ways. It is the shams that always keep shouting. Mabel Cawber insists upon it that she is a tip-top swell; Fred thinks he is deceiving everyone by telling them what

ewhat crushed, was

'll succeed then, my

rst step I have already taken is that I am leaving Liv and Dev's on Friday-and, I hope, going to be secre

ater in the evening. "And wasn't it like Katherine never telling us a thing about it u

, m

ation next week. I had a tremendo

you do it, Kitten

of Admirable Crichton-someone who could take down shorthand at lightning speed, and typewrite and speak French-a

u can't do half of those things, Kitt

little her family unde

e and Devereux for three years, and accustomed to composing every sort of letter that a mon

never! Wh

credentials, she would engage me immediately, because her secretary, who had been with her for years, had gone to be married-the

ure of getting

am going to see

besides Liv and Dev? Some fo

v nearly had a fit when I gave my notice-he almost cried to get me to stay

d they

as to come for the i

u, anyway-what is th

tails from Debrett, in which

hat will be easier for you-but why is she called 'Sarah'? I often have wondered about that

stian name tacked on, it is to make you sound younger. Dev says dowagers are quite out of fashion. Every widow is 'Sarah' or 'Cordelia

as very i

u have nothing nobby and smart like Gladys. She coul

; she sees the right sort of people at Ermantine's, and can te

tilda admitted. "Then you'll

be parted from you-but I daresay I shall

looked

ere one of u

in among you, always the discordant note and the wet blanket. I hark back

care for us-n

sh remained

I'll never forget you, dear. There, don't be a donkey a

lm her sister-who was intensely

ested, in a still quavering voice, "and you've gi

se-I am determined to make a change, a

he warmed attic with Matilda, an honour she duly appr

when they neared the tiny fireplace. "I have tol

ilda had already indulged in-and when calm was restored,

ss, or those ladies who look like them, I want to know wha

ush smiled co

tight skirts when they are first the fashion, or loose ones when it c

age me if I had 'the look,'"

" Gladys suggested. "One of our hands can copy it at home, but there won't be time by S

yer's late husband's nephew. Strobridge is the Garribardine name." Katherine had

o," Gladys continued. "She was Tho

quoted Katherine, remembering Debrett. "He is

et with their own touch on them, spoiling the style. They come together generally, and do make a lot of fuss over eac

ned when she wanted specific information, never idly, and it was a

, no more than the 'look'; sometimes she's all right-at least, the things are al

ilda int

, Kitten. I'd certainly have that same dress, it will just sho

the same subdued style as Lady Beatrice would have chosen, but not the act

from Lord Algy. A sweet little love epistle. Just to tell her he could not possibly wait for the whole month before seeing her-and was coming up to town the follow

must have courage now to renounce all further pleasure. Once was an experience, twice would be w

iece-but there was something in her character, as Lord Al

eet of paper, and then, in her firm round hand which

r A

am never going on another. I shall have left Liv and Dev's before

.

-addressed it and stamped it-then she

ill to renounce tangible present happiness, how