“Is that all right?” Violet asked, pointing to a bright contraption perched on the gas-ring and emitting the first hints of a lovely odour.
This contraption, new in Elsie’s experience, and doubtfully regarded by her, was an important item in the double life of Violet, who had bought it exclusively with her own money, and, far from letting it appear in the household accounts which Henry expected from her as a matter of course, had not even mentioned it to him. Henry seldom or never entered the kitchen nowadays, being somehow aware that women did not welcome men in kitchens.
“Oh, yes, ’m,” Elsie cheerfully and benevolently answered. She had not quite seen the point of the contraption. She knew that it was divided into two compartments, one above another, but why it should be so divided she had not fully understood, despite explanations administered to her.
Violet thought:
“How nice this is! How warm! What a comfort Elsie is! What a dear Henry is! And I shall have my way with him tonight, and having my way with him will make us both happier. And we’re very happy, I’m sure; much happier than most people; and everything’s so secure; and we’ve got plenty to fall back on. And how lovely and warm it is in here. And what a lovely smell. … I hope he won’t smell it till I’m ready for him.” She looked to see that the door was shut and the window a little open.
Thus did Violet’s thoughts run. And then she noticed, by chance as it seemed, a particle of something or other detach itself from the lower rim of the contraption and fall on the wooden shelf on which the gas-ring stood. Then another particle; then another. She was spellbound for a moment.
“Elsie!” she cried, aghast, desperate, and whipped the contraption off the ring.
“What, ’m?”
“You’ve not put any water in the bottom part and the solder’s melted. You’ve ruined it! You’ve ruined it! How any girl can be so stupid, so stupid—after all the trouble I took to tell you—I cannot imagine. No, I cannot!”
And she could not. She knew that Elsie was stupid. In two days Violet had learnt more about the contents of the shop than Elsie had ever learnt or ever could learn. She knew that Elsie was conservative, set hard in her ways, and opposed to new knowledge. But she had not guessed that even Elsie could be so stupid as to leave the lower compartment of the contraption without water and then stick it on a lighted gas-ring! The phenomenon passed her comprehension.
“Stand away, do!” she exclaimed, as Elsie, puckered and gloomy, approached the region of disaster. “I shall have to have it repaired. And I can’t cook this now as I wanted to. And I shall have to begin it all over again. And your master comes home tired out and this is all you can manage to do!”
Elsie, though severely conscience-stricken, was confirmed in her opinion that these newfangled dodges were worthless—you never knew where you were with them.
“I should like to pay for the repairing, ’m,” she at last broke the silence.
“Yes! And I should think you would like to pay for the repairing, my girl! You shall pay for it, whether you like or not! But what would your master say to such careless waste if he knew?” And Violet proceeded with the heartbreaking work of salvage.
“Now pass me that saucer, do!”
Elsie passed the saucer. Violet stared at the saucer, withheld from taking it by a sudden thought.
“What did you do with that egg?”
“What egg, ’m?”
“You know what egg. The egg your master couldn’t eat this morning at breakfast. I put it in that saucer, I’m sure I did.”
Violet gazed formidably at Elsie. Elsie’s eyes dropped and her lips fell and she crimsoned.
“Have you put it in the cage?” No answer. “You don’t mean to tell me you’ve eaten it!”
“Well, ’m. There it was all the time. And I felt so sinking like this afternoon. And I don’t know what I was thinking of—”
“Elsie, your master always did say you were greedy! And I suppose you’ll say I starve you. I suppose you’ll say I don’t give you enough to eat.”
Violet burst into tears, to her own surprise and shame. Of late she had been less gay, less vivacious and more nervous than at the beginning of the year. She had not wanted the egg for her own need. But she had wanted to eat it, warmed up afresh, so as to keep Henry company while he ate the dish which Elsie’s negligence had so nearly spoilt. And now Elsie had gluttonously swallowed the egg. Nobody could make out these servants. They might be very faithful and all that, but there was always something—always something. Yes, she cried openly! She was bowed down.
