DOI article:
Simpson, Frederick M.: The dedication
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20196#0182
176 The Dedication
it seemea a sin to remain indoors. I do hope the frost continues
all the holidays.
Lucy, It is all very well for you, but it must be terribly trying
for many people—the poor, for instance.
Agnes. Yes. \A pause.'] Auntie, you don't know anything, do
you, about how—how poor people live ?
Lucy. Not so much as I ought to.
Agnes. I didn't mean very poor people, not working people. I
meant a person poor Iike—like I am poor.
Lucy. [Smi/ing-'] Don't you know how you live yourself ?
Agnes. Of course I do, but—I was thinking of—of a friend of
mine, a governess like myself, who has just got engaged ; and I—
I was wondering on how much, or, rather, how little, they could
live. But you don't know of course. You are rieh, and-
Lucy. But I wasn't always rieh. Thirty years ago when I was
your age-
Agnes. When you were my age ! I like that! why you are
not fifty.
Lucy. Little flatterer. Fifty-two last birthday.
Agnes. Fifty-two ! Well, you don't look it, at all events.
Lucy. Gross flatterer. When I was your age I was poor and a
governess as you are.
Agnes. But I thought that your Aunt Emily left you all her
money.
Lucy. So she did, or nearly all; but that was afterwards. It
isn't quite thirty years yet since she came back from India, a
widow, just after she had lost her husband and only child. I was
veryill at the time—I almost died ; and she, good woman as she
was, came and nursed me.
Agnes. Of course, I know. I have heard father talk about it.
And then she was taken ill, wasn't she ?
Lucy.
it seemea a sin to remain indoors. I do hope the frost continues
all the holidays.
Lucy, It is all very well for you, but it must be terribly trying
for many people—the poor, for instance.
Agnes. Yes. \A pause.'] Auntie, you don't know anything, do
you, about how—how poor people live ?
Lucy. Not so much as I ought to.
Agnes. I didn't mean very poor people, not working people. I
meant a person poor Iike—like I am poor.
Lucy. [Smi/ing-'] Don't you know how you live yourself ?
Agnes. Of course I do, but—I was thinking of—of a friend of
mine, a governess like myself, who has just got engaged ; and I—
I was wondering on how much, or, rather, how little, they could
live. But you don't know of course. You are rieh, and-
Lucy. But I wasn't always rieh. Thirty years ago when I was
your age-
Agnes. When you were my age ! I like that! why you are
not fifty.
Lucy. Little flatterer. Fifty-two last birthday.
Agnes. Fifty-two ! Well, you don't look it, at all events.
Lucy. Gross flatterer. When I was your age I was poor and a
governess as you are.
Agnes. But I thought that your Aunt Emily left you all her
money.
Lucy. So she did, or nearly all; but that was afterwards. It
isn't quite thirty years yet since she came back from India, a
widow, just after she had lost her husband and only child. I was
veryill at the time—I almost died ; and she, good woman as she
was, came and nursed me.
Agnes. Of course, I know. I have heard father talk about it.
And then she was taken ill, wasn't she ?
Lucy.