‘Of course,’ said the boy, ‘I started it for mother. She said she had no luck, because father is unlucky, so I thought if I was lucky, it might stop whispering.’
‘What might stop whispering?’
‘Our house! I hate our house for whispering.’
‘What does it whisper?’
‘Why — why’ — the boy fidgeted — ‘why, I don’t know! But it’s always short of money, you know, uncle.’
‘I know it, son, I know it.’
‘You know people send mother writs, don’t you, uncle?’
‘I’m afraid I do,’ said the uncle.
‘And then the house whispers like people laughing at you behind your back. It’s awful, that is! I thought if I was lucky — ’
‘You might stop it,’ added the uncle.
The boy watched him with big blue eyes, that had an uncanny cold fire in them, and he said never a word.
‘Well then!’ said the uncle. ‘What are we doing?’
‘I shouldn’t like mother to know I was lucky,’ said the boy.
‘Why not, son?’
‘She’d stop me.’
‘I don’t think she would.’
‘Oh!’ — and the boy writhed in an odd way — ‘I don’t want her to know, uncle.’
‘All right, son! We’ll manage it without her knowing.’
They managed it very easily. Paul, at the other’s suggestion, handed over five thousand pounds to his uncle, who deposited it with the family lawyer, who was then to inform Paul’s mother that a relative had put five thousand pounds into his hands, which sum was to be paid out a thousand pounds at a time, on the mother’s birthday, for the next five years.
‘So she’ll have a birthday present of a thousand pounds for five successive years,’ said Uncle Oscar. ‘I hope it won’t make it all the harder for her later.’
Paul’s mother had her birthday in November. The house had been ‘whispering’ worse than ever lately, and even in spite of his luck, Paul could not bear up against it. He was very anxious to see the effect of the birthday letter, telling his mother about the thousand pounds.
When there were no visitors, Paul now took his meals with his parents, as he was beyond the nursery control. His mother went into town nearly every day. She had discovered that she had an odd knack of sketching furs and dress materials, so she worked secretly in the studio of a friend who was the chief ‘artist’ for the leading drapers. She drew the figures of ladies in furs and ladies in silk and sequins for the newspaper advertisements. This young woman artist earned several thousand pounds a year, but Paul’s mother only made several hundreds, and she was again dissatisfied. She so wanted to be first in something, and she did not succeed, even in making sketches for drapery advertisements.
