I have not said a great deal about what Jenny meant to Frank, just
because he said so very little about her himself. She was, in fact,
almost the only element in his variegated life upon which he had not
been in the habit of pouring out torrential comments and reflections.
His father and Archie were not at all spared in his conversation with
his most intimate friends; in fact, he had been known, more than once,
in a very select circle at Cambridge, to have conducted imaginary
dialogues between those two on himself as their subject, and he could
imitate with remarkable fidelity his Cousin Dick over a billiard-table.
But he practically never mentioned Jenny; he had not even a photograph
of her on his mantelpiece. And it very soon became known among his
friends, when the news of his engagement leaked out through Jack, that
it was not to be spoken of in his presence. He had preserved the same
reticence, it may be remembered, about his religion.
And so Frank at last fell asleep on a little iron bedstead, just
remembering that it was quite possible he might have another letter from
her to-morrow, if Jack had performed his commission immediately. But he
hardly expected to hear till Tuesday.
* * * * *
Gertie was up soon after five next morning to get breakfast for her men,
since the Major had announced that he would go with Frank to see whether
possibly there might not be a job for him too; and as soon as they had
gone, very properly went to sleep again on the bed in the sitting-room.
Gertie had a strenuous time of it, in spite of the Major's frequently
expressed opinion that women had no idea what work was. For, first,
there was the almost unending labor of providing food and cooking it as
well as possible; there was almost a standing engagement of mending and
washing clothes; there were numerous arguments to be conducted, on terms
of comparative equality, if possible, with landladies or farmers'
wives--Gertie always wore a brass wedding-ring and showed it sometimes a
little ostentatiously; and, finally, when the company was on the march,
it was only fair that she should carry the heavier half of the luggage,
in order to compensate for her life of luxury and ease at other times.
Gertie, then, was usually dog-tired, and slept whenever she could get a
chance.
It was nearly eight o'clock before she was awakened again by sharp
knocking on her door; and on opening it, found the landlady' standing
there, examining a letter with great attention. (It had already been
held up to the light against the kitchen window.)
"For one of your folks, isn't it, Mrs.--er--" Gertie took it. It was
written on excellent paper, and directed in a man's handwriting to Mr.
Gregory:
"Thank you, Mrs.--er--" said Gertie.
Then she went back into her room, put the letter carefully away in the
drawer of the table and set about her household business.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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