At once the strain of the nest-eggs would be reduced from half to
a quarter. Mrs. Wilkins was prepared to fling her entire egg into the
adventure, but she realized that if it were to cost even sixpence over
her ninety pounds her position would be terrible. Imagine going to
Mellersh and saying, "I owe." It would be awful enough if some day
circumstances forced her to say, "I have no nest-egg," but at least she
would be supported in such a case by the knowledge that the egg had
been her own. She therefore, though prepared to fling her last penny
into the adventure, was not prepared to fling into it a single farthing
that was not demonstrably her own; and she felt that if her share of
the rent was reduced to fifteen pounds only, she would have a safe
margin for the other expenses. Also they might economise very much on
food--gather olives off their own trees and eat them, for instance, and
perhaps catch fish.
Of course, as they pointed out to each other, they could reduce
the rent to an almost negligible sum by increasing the number of
sharers; they could have six more ladies instead of two if they wanted
to, seeing that there were eight beds. But supposing the eight beds
were distributed in couples in four rooms, it would not be altogether
what they wanted, to find themselves shut up at night with a stranger.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50