The Triumph of JillYoung, F. E. Mills (Florence Ethel Mills)
Philosophy
The Triumph of Jill
Young, F. E. Mills (Florence Ethel Mills)
Art teachers -- Fiction; Children of the rich -- Fiction; Love stories; Young women -- Fiction
"We won't take it," Jill cried wrathfully with the improvident contempt
of the penniless, "We won't touch a farthing of it, will we?"
"Oh; yes, we will," he answered. "We'll get married on it in the first
place, and then live on the rest for so long as it will last."
"I wouldn't get married on that five hundred pounds for anything," Jill
said firmly.
"Well, I'm going to," he replied, "I'm going to see about it now. We'll
go before a Registrar--much nicer than Church, you know, doesn't take so
long. And then I'm going to invest the rest with a little capital that
I have by me in a snug little business--haberdashery, or something of
the kind; I'm not quite sure what, though I thought about nothing else
all last night."
Jill gave a quiet laugh.
"My dear old boy," she said, "you must allow me a say in that matter if
you please. I wouldn't let you have a haberdashery; I'd sooner that you
were a pork butcher at once."
"No good," he answered. "I've thought of that too; but I couldn't kill
a pig for love or money. I could measure out a yard or two of ribbon
though, and sell worsted stockings to old women. I say, Jill, what do
you think of a photographic studio?--That's the next best thing to art."
Jill had a fine contempt for photography, and said so, but St. John was
rather taken with the new idea, and as he pointed out while he did the
mechanical work she could paint portraits and enlargements, and have a
kind of Art Gallery as well. He spoke with a cheery confidence that
showed that he fully expected her to fall in with his plan immediately
and be struck as he was with the brilliance of the idea. But for once
Jill's spirit seemed to have deserted her, and she turned away with a
catch in her voice, and quite a forlorn expression in the grey eyes
which a moment ago had been smiling into his.
"Oh, Jack, don't!" she cried. "I can't bear to listen to you. My poor
old saint, I wish that you had never met me."
"Stop that," commanded St. John sharply. "You make me feel such a
beastly cad--the son of a beastlier cad--"
She turned and laid her hand upon his lips, shaking her head at him
reprovingly.
"Your language isn't fit for a stable," she said in her elder sister,
teacher-to-pupil tone. "I can't have you calling people names here.
Besides what I said need not have excited your risability like that. I
meant it in all sincerity; it is a pity as things have turned out; I was
quite happy here working by myself, and got along fairly comfortably,
and I think now that we have had our pleasant fooling and the crisis is
reached I should like to offer you your freedom."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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