, for the old lady was not
entertaining, and she dared not go about much by herself in so
metropolitan a place as Lewisham. Every morning she and her future
mother-in-law went out shopping--that is to say they bought half-pounds
and quarter-pounds of various commodities which Joanna at Ansdore would
have laid in by the bushel and the hundredweight. They would buy tea at
one grocer's, and then walk down two streets to buy cocoa from another,
because he sold it cheaper than the shop where they had bought the tea.
The late Mr. Hill had left his widow very badly off--indeed she could
not have lived at all except for what her children gave her out of their
salaries. To her dismay, Joanna discovered that while Agatha, in spite
of silk stockings and Merry Widow hats, gave her mother a pound out of
the weekly thirty shillings she earned as a typist, Albert gave her only
ten shillings a week--his bare expenses.

"He says he doesn't see why he should pay more for living at home than
he'd pay in digs--though, as a matter of fact I don't know anyone who'd
take him for as little as that, even for only bed and breakfast."

"But what does he do with the rest of the money?"

"Oh, he has a lot of expenses, my dear--belongs to all sorts of grand
clubs, and goes abroad every year with the Polytechnic, or even Cook's.
Besides, he has lady friends that he takes about--used to, I should say,
for, of course, he's done with all that now--but he was always the boy
for taking ladies out--and never would demean himself to anything less
than a Corner House."

"But he should ought to treat you proper, all the same," said Joanna.

She felt sorry and angry, and also, in some vague way, that it was her
part to set matters right--that the wound in her love would be healed if
she could act where Bertie was remiss. But Mrs. Hill would not let her
open her fat purse on her account. "No, dear; we never let a friend
oblige us." Joanna, who was not tactful, persisted, and the old lady
became very frozen and genteel.

Bertie's hours were not long at the office. He was generally back at
six, and took Joanna out--up to town, where they had dinner and then
went on to some theatre or picture-palace, the costs of the expedition
being defrayed out of her own pocket. She had never had so much
dissipation in her life--she saw "The Merry Widow," "A Persian
Princess," and all the musical comedies. Albert did not patronise the
more serious drama, and for Joanna th