Christina Alberta's father

by H. G. Wells

Before the abrupt ending of Christina Alberta’s university career she was present only at breakfast and supper; supper wasn’t nearly as awful in quality as breakfast, and breakfast could easily be bolted and got away from; but after the New Hope Club catastrophe, she was present at all the meals, a sort of lightning-conductor for her father and something of a restraint upon, and an added exasperation to, her mother. She took the line of agreeing that if her university career was to end, then she must go into the laundry business; but she argued very stoutly that to do that with any hope of success under modern conditions meant a “proper business training.” If she could not go to the London School of Economics then she ought to go to Tomlinson’s Commercial Training School in Chancery Lane and learn book-keeping, shorthand, typing, business correspondence, précis, commercial French, and so forth. And after three weeks of painful midday meals this proposal was adopted under stringent conditions and her season-ticket to London was renewed. She worked her way very passably through another winter with Tomlinson’s as her school and most of London as her playground. She learnt all sorts of things. She added a new set of friends and acquaintances, some with bobbed hair and some without, of the most various social origins and associations, to the circle she had already acquired at the London School of Economics.

When presently Mrs. Preemby began to speak of a gnawing pain that oppressed her, both her husband and daughter took it at first as a new development of her general grievance against them and felt no particular apprehension about it. Mr. Preemby said he thought she ought to take advice or see some one about it, but for some days she treated the suggestion with scorn. If once she got in a doctor, she said, they’d have to find some one else to look after the laundry. Doctors put you to bed and give you things to keep you there. Otherwise how could they get a living?

Then suddenly she changed. One morning she confessed she felt “dreadful.” She went back to bed and Mr. Preemby, with strange premonitions that the world was coming to an end, trotted off for a doctor. The clinical thermometer showed a temperature mounting above one hundred and one. “It hurts. My side hurts,” said Mrs. Preemby. “I’ve had it once before, but not like this.”

Christina Alberta came home that evening to discover herself capable of fear, remorse, and tenderness.

She had some strange moments with her mother in between phases of weak delirium and insensibility. Mrs. Preemby’s face seemed to have become smaller and prettier; the feverish flush in her cheeks simulated youth. She was no longer hard or angry, but rather pathetically friendly. And Christina Alberta hadn’t seen her in bed for years.

“Take care of your Daddy,” said Mrs. Preemby. “You owe more to him—and less to him—than you think. I had to do all I’ve done. Take care of him. He’s gentle and good and easily persuaded and not to be trusted alone in the world....

“I’ve never been quite all a mother should be to you. But you’ve been difficult, Christina.... I’ve had a great respect for you....

“I’m glad you haven’t my eyes. Glasses are a Curse....”

Anxiety about the laundry occupied a large part of her thoughts.

“That woman Smithers in the washing room is a thief, and I’d get rid of the new man Baxandale. I don’t know why I’ve kept Mrs. Smithers on so long.... Weakness.... I’m not sure about him, there’s nothing positive yet, but I feel he’s not straight.... I’m very much afraid we’ve let Lady Badger’s account run too long. Nowadays titles—want watching. I’ve been misled by her. She promised a cheque.... But I doubt about you two in the laundry altogether. He can’t and you won’t. You might have done it.... Never mind that now.