Page 774 - of-human-bondage-

for a fortnight. When she was well she answered one or two
advertisements, but nothing came of it: either she arrived
too late and the vacant place was filled, or the work was
more than she felt strong enough to do. Once she got an of-
fer, but the wages were only fourteen shillings a week, and
she thought she was worth more than that.
‘It’s no good letting oneself be put upon,’ she remarked.
‘People don’t respect you if you let yourself go too cheap.’
‘I don’t think fourteen shillings is so bad,’ answered Phil-
ip, drily.
He could not help thinking how useful it would be to-
wards the expenses of the household, and Mildred was
already beginning to hint that she did not get a place be-
cause she had not got a decent dress to interview employers
in. He gave her the dress, and she made one or two more at-
tempts, but Philip came to the conclusion that they were not
serious. She did not want to work. The only way he knew to
make money was on the Stock Exchange, and he was very
anxious to repeat the lucky experiment of the summer; but
war had broken out with the Transvaal and nothing was
doing in South Africans. Macalister told him that Redvers
Buller would march into Pretoria in a month and then ev-
erything would boom. The only thing was to wait patiently.
What they wanted was a British reverse to knock things
down a bit, and then it might be worth while buying. Phil-
ip began reading assiduously the ‘city chat’ of his favourite
newspaper. He was worried and irritable. Once or twice he
spoke sharply to Mildred, and since she was neither tactful
nor patient she answered with temper, and they quarrelled.