"I think you’d do well. You seem level-headed. And there’d be some sort of future in it, instead of pottering about here like an old woman."
"But I don’t like business. I like to be here, with nice people, where I can learn something."
"That’s quite right, of course; but what will you do—later?"
"Well—I don’t know, exactly. I just think that if I can—sort of improve myself—some sort of chance will come some day."
She reflected a moment.
"All these magnificent women," she said. "They just kind of waited round for something to turn up, didn’t they? I mean, they didn’t plan what they were going to be. I haven’t thought it all out; but I mean to—oh, to go up all the time, to get to be somebody!"
Eddie, unconscious of his own infantile innocence, smiled at her naïveness, but admired her.
"I’ll see that you get a chance," he said. "And I’ll help you to learn, if you like. If you’ll study, I’ll give you what spare time I can."
"All right," said Angelica. "That’ll be fine! Only," she added, "what I want isn’t exactly things you study out of books. It’s—good manners, and the right way of talking."
"You’ll pick up all that from Mrs. Geraldine," returned Eddie. "You couldn’t find a better model. By the way, how did you get on with her to-day?"