She liked the busy
sound of the word, too. But though she called at the agencies day after
day, no one seemed to want her. At last a clerk, an elderly, pleasant
woman explained.
"They're afraid to engage newly married couples on up-country stations
where there are not too many hands for fear they go having children--you
see, that puts a woman out of action for a while and throws all the work
out of gear. If you were forty-five or thereabouts, now."
This seemed an astonishing state of things to Marcella.
The days passed. Louis got up at Christmas time in the blazing heat of
midsummer, looking a shadow of himself. He began to take a greedy
interest in doing things; he made a cupboard for the crockery lent them
by Mrs. King; he made it very well, very carefully, hampered by lack of
tools. He read hungrily all the books Dr. Angus sent to Marcella,
especially lectures and scientific books. He seemed to disagree on
principle with whatever she said, and they had many pleasantly heated
arguments. His mother sent him papers--the "Referee," "Punch," the
"Mirror." He cut out many of the "Punch" pictures and tacked them up
beside the Landseer print, side by side with Will Dyson's cartoons from
the "Bulletin" that Marcella liked. When there was nothing to read or do
he told Marcella yarns of his past, until she grew to know his people
very well.
Pages:
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376