“Be quiet, Jim! I like Elizabeth ever so much; but she costs a good deal, and we won’t keep her. She will easily get another place; for I’ll tell Miss Carlyon about her, and what an old dear she is.” Jim smiled forlornly at the epithet applied to angular Mrs. Macbean. “You see, it’s wicked to employ people you can’t afford to pay; and I’m sure we can’t afford to pay Elizabeth.”
Jim clenched his hands behind his back. They were strong, capable hands; why, oh why, could he not fill them with gold for Missy!
“We can do quite well without her,” persisted Frances, her courage rising bravely to the emergency. Jim watched the kindling of the girl’s intelligent face, and wondered whether he had known before that gentle-voiced Missy possessed so plucky a spirit. “She—or someone else—might come, perhaps, once a week: to wash, you know, Jim, and to clean the kitchen. I shall do the rest.”
“You!” gasped Jim.
“Of course. I can cook and sweep and dust—yes, and I’ll learn to scrub. Why not?”
“No, Missy. Oh, don’t put that shame on me!” muttered Jim, in an agony of mental distress. “’Tis no work for little ladies: and a man ought to bear the burdens by himself. I’ll get more to do—indeed I will! You sha’n’t need to worry, if only you’ll not say Elizabeth must go.”
“But I do say it, Jim,” said Frances solemnly; “I wish I could send you to Haversfield, and let Miss Cliveden talk to you. She’d show you what a goose you were to think ladies—no, gentlewomen—are disgraced by work. Why, loads of splendid, clever women earn their own living; and I’ve always thought I’d love to earn mine. Look at Miss Carlyon—she isn’t ashamed to work for herself, and not be a burden to her brother.”
“But her work’s so different, Missy,” pleaded Jim.
“As if that mattered! Still, if you think it does, and won’t let me help here, I’ll try another plan. I’m fifteen now, and I dare say I might teach little children. Mrs. Stanley wants a nursery governess, Max says. I shall beg her to take me.”
“Missy!” Jim’s tone was now one of the blankest, most thorough dismay. “Go away from home—leave Rowdon” murmured the lad incredulously. “Why, ’twould take all the light from the place. You’d never—Missy!—you’d never do it?”