The Independence of Claire | Page 2

the owner from the possibility of keen
personal suffering.
At the present moment Mrs Gifford did, however, look really perturbed,
for, after shutting her eyes to a disagreeable fact, and keeping them shut
with much resolution and--it must be added--ease, for many years past,
she was now driven to face the truth, and to break it to her daughter
into the bargain.
"But I don't understand!" Claire repeated blankly. "How can the money
be gone? We have spent no more this year than for years past. I should
think we have spent less. I haven't been extravagant a bit. You offered
me a new hat only last week, and I said I could do without--"
"Yes, yes, of course. It's quite true, cherie, you have been most good.
But, you see, ours has not been a case of an income that goes on year
after year--it never was, even from the beginning. There was not
enough. And you did have a good education, didn't you? I spared
nothing on it. It's folly to stint on a girl's education.--It was one of the
best schools in Paris."
"It was, mother; but we are not talking about schools. Do let us get to
the bottom of this horrid muddle! If it isn't a case of `income,' what can
it be? I'm ignorant about money, for you have always managed
business matters, but I can't see what else we can have been living
upon?"
Mrs Gifford crinkled her delicate brows, and adopted an air of plaintive

self-defence.
"I'm sure it's as great a shock to me as it is to you; but, under the
circumstances, I do think I managed very well. It was only nine
thousand pounds at the beginning, and I've made it last over thirteen
years, with your education! And since we've been here, for the last
three years, I've given you a good time, and taken you to everything
that was going on. Naturally it all costs. Naturally money can't last for
ever..."
The blood flooded the girl's face. Now at last she did understand, and
the knowledge filled her with awe.
"Mother! Do you mean that we have been living all this time on
capital?"
Mrs Gifford shrugged her shoulders, and extended her hands in an
attitude typically French.
"What would you, ma chere? Interest is so ridiculously low. They
offered me three per cent. Four was considered high. How could we
have lived on less than three hundred a year? Your school bills came to
nearly as much, and I had to live, too, and keep you in the holidays. I
did what I thought was the best. We should both have been miserable in
cheap pensions, stinting ourselves of everything we liked. The money
has made us happy for thirteen years."
Claire rose from her seat and walked over to the window. The road into
which she looked was wide and handsome, lined with a double row of
trees. The sun shone on the high white houses with the green jalousies,
which stood vis-a-vis with the Pension. Along the cobble-stoned path a
dog was dragging a milk-cart, the gleaming brass cans clanking from
side to side; through the open window came the faint indescribable
scent which distinguishes a continental from a British city. Claire
stared with unseeing eyes, her heart beating with heavy thuds. She
conjured up the image of a man's face--a strong kindly face--a face
which might well make the sunshine of some woman's life, but which
made no appeal to her own heart. She set her lips, and two bright spots

of colour showed suddenly in her cheeks. So smooth and uneventful
had been her life that this was the first time that she had found herself
face to face with serious difficulty, and, after the first shock of
realisation, her spirit rose to meet it. She straightened her shoulders as
if throwing off a weight, and her heart cried valiantly, "It's my own life,
and I will not be forced! There must be some other way. It's for me to
find it!"
Suddenly she whirled round, and walked back to her mother.
"Mother, if you knew how little money was left, why wouldn't you let
me accept Miss Farnborough's offer at Christmas!"
For a moment Mrs Gifford's face expressed nothing but bewilderment.
Then comprehension dawned.
"You mean the school-mistress from London? What was it she
suggested? That you should go to her as a teacher? It was only a
suggestion, so far as I remember. She made no definite offer."
"Oh, yes, she did. She said that she had everlasting difficulty with her
French mistresses, and that I was the very person for whom she'd been
looking. Virtually French, yet really English in temperament. She made
me a definite offer of a hundred and