The Independence of Claire | Page 6

liberty is to the heart of an Englishwoman, it was in prospect dearer
still to this girl who had been educated in a country still enslaved by
chaperonage, and had never known a taste of real freedom of action.
Mrs Gifford had been as strict as or stricter than any Belgian mother,

being rightly determined that no breath of scandal should touch her
daughter's name; therefore wherever Claire went, some responsible
female went with her. She was chaperoned to church, chaperoned on
her morning constitutional, a chaperon sat on guard during the period
of music and drawing lessons, and at their conclusion escorted her back
to the Pension. What wonder that the thought of life as a bachelor girl
in London seemed full of a thrilling excitement!
Suppose for one minute that she decided on London--what would
become of mother? Again and again Claire asked herself this question,
again and again she recalled the interview between herself and the
headmistress, Miss Farnborough, when the subject of teaching had
been discussed. It had happened one morning in the salon of the
Pension, when Claire had been coaching an English visitor in
preparation for a French interview which lay ahead, and Miss
Farnborough, laying down her book, had listened with smiling interest.
Then the Englishwoman left the room, and Miss Farnborough had said,
"You did that very cleverly; very cleverly indeed! You have a very
happy knack of putting things simply and forcibly. I've noticed it more
than once. Have you ever done any teaching?"
"None professionally," Claire had replied with a laugh, "but a great
deal by chance. I seem to drift into the position of coach to most of the
English visitors here. It pleases them, and it interests me. And I used to
help the French girls with their English at school."
Then Miss Farnborough had inquired with interest as to the details of
Claire's education, the schools she had attended, the examinations she
had passed, and finally had come the critical question, "Have you ever
thought of taking up teaching as a profession?"
Claire had never thought of taking up work of any kind, but the
suggestion roused a keen interest, as one of the temporary "tight" times
was in process, so that the prospect of money-making seemed
particularly agreeable. She discussed the subject carefully, and out of
that discussion had arisen the final offer of a post.
The junior French mistress in the High School of which Miss

Farnborough was head was leaving at midsummer. If Claire wished she
could take her place, at a salary beginning at a hundred and ten pounds
a year. In Trust Schools, of which Saint Cuthbert's was one, there was
no fixed scale of advancement, but a successful teacher could reach a
salary of, say, two hundred a year by the time she was thirty-eight or
forty, as against the permanent sixty or seventy offered to mistresses in
residential schools of a higher grade. Miss Farnborough's mistresses
were women trained at the various universities; the school itself was
situated in a fashionable neighbourhood, and its pupils were for the
most part daughters of professional men, and gentlefolk of moderate
incomes. There was no pension scheme, and mistresses had to live out,
but with care and economy they could take out some insurance to
provide for old age.
Claire took little interest in her own old age, which seemed too far
away to count, but she was intensely interested in the immediate future,
and had been hurt and annoyed when her mother had waved aside the
proposal as unworthy of serious consideration. And now, only three
months after Miss Farnborough's departure, the crisis had arisen, and
that hundred and ten pounds assumed a vastly increased value.
Supposing that the post was accepted, and mother and daughter started
life in London with a capital of between two and three hundred pounds,
and a salary of one hundred and ten, as regular income--how long
would the nest-egg last out?
Judging from the experience of past years, a very short time indeed,
and what would happen after that? Claire had read gruesome tales of
the struggles of women in like positions, overtaken by illness, losing
the salaries which represented their all, brought face to face with actual
starvation, and in the midst of the midsummer heat, little shivers of fear
trickled up and down her spine as she realised how easily she and her
mother might drift into a like position.
Then, on the other hand, Bombay! Indian houses were large; mother
could have her own rooms. In the hot weather they would go together
to the hills, leaving Mr Judge behind. How long did the hot season last,
four or five months? Nearly half the year, perhaps. It would be only

half as bad as marrying a