The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (8.1896)

26

The Foolish Virgin
that she was in search of domestic employment, and that, through
her friends at Teddington, she had heard of Mrs. Halliday as a
lady who might perhaps consider her application. Then followed
an account of herself, tolerably ingenuous, and an amplification of
the phrases she had addressed to Geoffrey Hunt. On an after-
thought, she enclosed a stamped envelope.
Whilst the outcome remained dubious, Rosamund's behaviour to
her fellow-boarders was a pattern of offensiveness. She no longer
shunned them—seemed, indeed, to challenge their observation for
the sake of meeting it with arrogant defiance. She rudely in-
terrupted conversations, met sneers with virulent retorts, made
herself the common enemy. Mrs. Banting was appealed to ;
ladies declared that they could not live in a house where they were
exposed to vulgar insult. When nearly a week had passed Mrs.
Banting found it necessary to speak in private with Miss Jewell,
and to make a plaintive remonstrance. Rosamund's flashing eye
and contemptuous smile foretold the upshot.
" Spare yourself the trouble, Mrs. Banting. I leave the house
to-morrow."
" Oh, but-"
" There is no need for another word. Of course, I shall pay
the week in lieu of notice. I am busy, and have no time to
waste."
The day before, she had been to Forest Hill, had seen Mrs.
Halliday, and entered into an engagement. At midday on the
morrow she arrived at the house which was henceforth to be her
home, the scene of her labours.
Sheer stress of circumstance accounted for Mrs. Halliday's
decision. Geoffrey Hunt, a dispassionate observer, was not misled
in forming so high an opinion of his friend's wife. Only a year
or two older than Rosamund, Mrs. Halliday had the mind and the
temper