“Soap and water are cheap, fortunately.”
“I beg your pardon! Not your kind of soap. You might find even hot water a difficulty. I imagine that girls on twopence a week have to consider the price of boiling a kettle. Their hot water is not ‘laid on’. Moreover, the poor dears must be ‘dead tired,’ in a way which you and I cannot even imagine.”
“It is their life,” Charmion said loftily.
“Excuse me—I mean to live! That’s why I am thankful to have money, because it gives me more scope to live thoroughly.”
“Poor innocent! What a delusion. Money shuts the door of your cage. A golden cage, excellently padded, but—its bars shut out all the best things of life!”
I laughed again, for the statement was so opposed to all accepted theories.
“What best things, for example?”
“Confidence,” said Charmion solemnly. “Trust in one’s fellow-creatures.” She lifted her heavy lids as she spoke, and her eyes looked into mine. In their grey depths was a blank, empty expression, which once seen is never forgotten, for it speaks of a hurt so deep and keen that the memory of it breaks the heart. I leapt from my seat and wrapped Charmion in my arms.
“Oh, my dear, my dear, there is one person you can trust! Whatever happens, Charmion, you can count on me! Darling! I know you have had troubles. I don’t ask to hear about them. I only want to be allowed to love you, and to do all I can to help and to comfort. Never, never be afraid to ask for anything I can do. I would put you before myself, Charmion, if it ever came to a choice between our different interests—I would indeed! Don’t you believe it is true?”
She laid her two hands on my shoulders and smiled.