The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
had bought second-hand and had done up himself. The table, oilcloth, fender, hearthrug, etc., had been obtained on the hire system and were not yet paid for. The windows were draped with white lace curtains, and in the bay was a small bamboo table on which reposed a large Holy Bible, cheaply but showily bound.
If anyone had ever opened this book they would have found that its pages were as clean as the other things in the room, and on the fly-leaf might have been read the following inscription: 'To dear Ruth, from her loving friend Mrs Starvem, with the prayer that God's Word may be her guide and that Jesus may be her very own Saviour. Oct. 12, 19—.'
Mrs Starvem was Ruth's former mistress, and this had been her parting gift when Ruth left to get married. It was supposed to be a keepsake, but Ruth never opened the book and never willingly allowed her thoughts to dwell upon the scenes of which it reminded her.
For the memory of the time she spent in the house of 'her loving friend' was the reverse of pleasant. It comprised a series of recollections of petty tyrannies, insults and indignities. Six years of cruelly excessive work, beginning every morning two or three hours before the rest of the household were awake, and ceasing only when she went exhausted to bed late at night.
She had been what is called a 'slavey,' but if she had been really a slave her owner would have had some regard for her health and welfare; her 'loving friend' had had none. Mrs Starvem's only thought had been to get the greatest possible amount of labour out of Ruth and to give her as little as possible in return.
When Ruth looked back upon that dreadful time she saw it, as one might say, surrounded by a halo of religion. She never passed by a chapel, or heard the name of God or the singing of a hymn, without thinking of her former mistress. To have looked into this Bible would have reminded her of Mrs Starvem; that was one of the reasons why the book reposed unopened and unread, a mere ornament on the table in the bay window.
The second door in the passage, near the foot of the stairs, led into the kitchen or living room; from here another door led into the scullery, and upstairs were two bedrooms.
As Easton entered the house his wife met him in the passage
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