"Earn your own living, eh!" he repeated. "Well! Go on!"
Mary leaned across the table towards him.
"Don't think that I am not grateful for all you have done for me,
uncle," she said. "I am, indeed. Only I have felt lately that it was
my duty to order my life a little differently. I am young and strong,
and able to work. There is no reason why I should be a burden upon any
one."
She found his quietness ominous, but she did not flinch.
"I am not accomplished enough for a governess, or good-tempered enough
for a companion," she continued, "but I believe I have found something
which I can do. I have written several short stories for a woman's
magazine, and they have made me a sort of offer to do some regular work
for them. What they offer would just keep me. I want to accept."
"Where should you live?" he asked.
"In London!"
"Alone?
"There is a girls' club in Chelsea somewhere. I should go there at
first, and then try and share rooms with another girl."
"How much a week will they give you?"
"Twenty-eight shillings, and I shall be allowed to contribute regularly
to the magazine at the usual rates.
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